Dissociation
by slavik
Summary: Several months after successfully assassinating Tekhartha Mondatta, Widowmaker is finally tasked with the elimination of her rival Lena 'Tracer' Oxton by her Talon overseers, after Lena has interfered for the last time in Talon affairs. A plan is made and a trap set, now all that remains is for the fly to come to the spider's web, but what happens when the plan backfires?
1. Prologue

****Author Notes****

Welcome to my first published story. I hope you enjoy the totally not drug induced ramblings of my imagination!

I welcome all constructive feedback, I tend to beta my own stuff and I re-read what I've written multiple times and usually incur multiple amendments during that time (I'll usually end up editing stuff I've already posted), but inevitably there are slips up somewhere - bad grammar/spelling, completely muffed up pacing in comparison to the rest of the story, poor character development choices, crappy action scenes or perhaps a penchant for saying "a moment later" every other sentence, so if you spot anything like that do feel free to leave a review or send me a PM on how to improve (n stuff).

So why Overwatch, Tracer and Widowmaker? Surely it's been done to death? Yea, you're pretty much not wrong there, but I want to explore the characters myself and hopefully delve into a different story/plot to other authors here; whether there will be a relationship between the two, can't say for sure yet as I don't want it to come off as forced, so I guess we will all see how the story and character's developer over time. I also have plans for a Lord Of The Rings based story, but I'm keeping that a bit under wraps till I'm happy with my concepts surrounding it.

I'd like to stress right now that there will NOT be any explicit sexual content in any story I write, however I'm not afraid of wading into adult material such as violence, references to sexual activities, drugs and so forth. Pretty much to add a bit of grit and atmosphere (and because artistic license), in my own attempts to make everything feel more real if it suites the story at the time. Whether I manage to succeed or not, guess we shall see! With that being said please keep this in mind that I may change ratings depending on where things go.

As an FYI, I will be ignoring the Overwatch comic 'Reflections' when it comes to base lore foundations in this story, as it has some (what I consider) glaring mistakes in it (where is Lena's Chronal Accelerator? she isn't supposed to be able to take that off, or it's not adequately explained in the comic as to why she doesn't have it on) and it just breaks lore and immersion for me, not to mention some of the characters depicted doing things which just seem out of character to me as well. Pretty sure I read another author with the exact same opinion, so at least I'm not alone!

Starting off with a prologue to set the foundations for the story & plot going forward. Depending on feedback and how well received this all is will determine whether or not I will continue the story (no point writing stuff if it's garbage!). :-)

Let's move onto the legal stuffs:

I don't own Overwatch or any of the characters therein. This is simply my own take of the Overwatch lore in an Alternative Universe setting.

Picture sources

While I just mashed up the pictures until I was happy with them, I didn't make the original versions. The originals were made by some very talented artists (ruthiebutt on Deviant Art for Widowmaker, dinhosaur on Deviant Art for Tracer).

Ps. I promise the next time I write an Author Notes it won't be this long.

* * *

 **Prologue**

In the Mediterranean Sea, a black VTOL aircraft built with stealth in mind was preparing to land on the helicopter pad of an civilian freighter sailing east towards the Suez canal. The VTOL quickly landed and deposited a single lone individual before taking to the skies again.

The individual, a woman with skin and hair the unnatural colour of blue with her hair worn in a long ponytail that reached beyond the small of her back and wearing a purple body-tight suit leaving almost nothing to the imagination where her perfect figure was concerned. She carried a ballistic sniper rifle casually in her arms, the weapon could transform into a plasma rifle at the touch of a button for the more personal encounters. Her eyes were cold and dead, in an almost eternally piercing glare as those golden eyes as unnatural as her skin pigmentation ignored everything and everyone around her, her long legs carrying her to her destination on the ship without faltering.

The waves from the sea crashed against the side of the ship almost soaking her despite the skin tight bodysuit she wore being water proof, yet she never stopped, even when she wiped the salty water from her face with her hand. She felt nothing, her heart was stone cold and had been that way as long as she could remember, which wasn't that long considering her memories were erased by her Talon overseers every couple of months.

The only thing she had left to her which was truly her own was her native language and accent; French. It was one of the few things that survived the wipes, but yet she didn't care nor resent what had been done to her, for that is how she had been programmed. Her heart only truly felt anything at the moment of the kill, when there was a short jolt of pleasure and an empowering sensation as she took the life of another. It was her only moment when she could smile and felt anything at all.

She approached a hatch door in the side of conning tower of the ship, which she quickly opened, stepped through and sealed closed behind her in a series of swift and graceful movements, before carrying on into the bowels of the ship. She briefly considered the ship she was on-board; it was one of many assets that Talon hid within its civilian front companies, not that anyone could trace it back to Talon even if they'd of wanted to as all traces would lead them to a conglomerate corporation in the US.

During the meanderings of her thoughts, she found herself before a black reinforced door within a hidden section in the bowels of the ship with a restricted sign threatening all sorts of non described punishments for trespassing and stopped before it. Her destination, the lab in which she was examined & maintained after every mission, and the place she had her mind wiped when due. Every talon vessel she might be expected to stop of at had a similar facilities.

As she entered and closed the door behind her, the lab was not unlike a hospital operating theatre with the addition of a few unusual devices and chambers, some of which purpose were more orientated for torturing individuals than healing them. She then stopped before a man in a lab coat labelled as a lead scientist who turned to look at her.

"Ah, Widowmaker... the usual is it?" he said with his lecherous smile and his eyes taking in her full beauty, although everyone in the room knew better than to openly comment on her beauty as she had brutally killed the last man who did in front of all of them; not that any of them knew he had actually been her target at the time due to him selling Talon secrets, but his death had the additional benefit for Widowmaker of stopping further verbal flattery.

She simply nodded and handed over her rifle, recon visor, and other equipment. The man was quick to put her equipment away, and went over to a cold metal slab with numerous medical diagnostic equipment, he knew what was coming next.

Widowmaker slid off her armoured boots and slowly undid the discrete armoured clasps holding her one piece bodysuit together and took it off, naked in her entirety with not a single hair on her body anywhere. She didn't care though, her body was that of a weapon and nothing more and she had no concept of the desire she created in both men and women.

Yet her bodysuit was designed to elicit such reactions to take advantage of her figure as its designers had considered sex as much of a weapon as an actual gun, even if Widowmaker didn't. It only took a moments hesitation in an opponent which could be taken advantage of by such a superlative assassin like Widowmaker, and every edge counted in her line of work.

She quietly and efficiently folded her bodysuit and placed it on a metal set of draws next to where her equipment had been stowed, before walking over to the the metal diagnostics table and slipping onto it and lying down, the metal was freezing cold against her skin. The scientists worked quickly on the consoles surrounding her diagnostics bed as different scanners went to work, as they all knew Widowmaker didn't like to be stuck on that table for long, as she wasn't very tolerant of inefficiency.

"Your body temperature is stable at 19 degrees Celsius… perfect for avoiding thermal sensors" the scientist cooed over the statistics, the man was proud of the work he had done, decades ahead of time as it was, not caring at all that it had destroyed an innocent woman who had never asked for any of it; not that Widowmaker herself cared either.

"...Everything else checks out... all we have to do is the mind wipe and you will be ready for your next assignment" the scientist spoke after several more medical check-ups were completed.

Widowmaker simply nodded, as the different scientists began to strap her down to the table and hook her up to an IV drip filled with a cocktail of different drugs, before finally placing a device on her forehead which was to all intents and purposes a fancy electrode designed to scan & erase any long term memory deemed as unneeded for future missions.

Without the drugs the process was sure to have been agony however Widowmaker simply felt like she was tumbling through the centre of a hurricane within her body and mind before she slipped into unconsciousness. When she next woke up, the process was finished and many hours had passed and she found herself still naked but unrestrained on the diagnostics table.

The scientists were about to begin their usual battery of quick tests to ensure Widowmaker's mind was intact, at least the parts that mattered when the black door opened and a tall, well built man dressed in a black hooded trench coat, with black armour hidden beneath and a white skull mask covering his face entered. Reaper, a man who was dead but not dead, a man who killed for his own enjoyment, and another of Talon's agents as deadly as Widowmaker, but where Widowmaker was a precision tool who made clean kills with no mess & no trace, Reaper was a bludgeon killing anything and everything in his path, leaving only a mess behind him where the corpses of his victims seemingly drained of life and easily linked back to him.

"Those tests won't be necessary..." Reaper's dark gravelly voice echoed through the room, the threat to kill ever present "... there's another assignment that needs completing, and it's urgent."

The lead scientist took a few steps back as reaper entered and approached, terror plain on his face, he then managed a stuttered response "... I c-c-can't... if there are unexpected gaps in her memory..."

Widowmaker watched on from her spot on the table, her cold eyes focused on Reaper.

"That is none of my concern..." Reaper retorted "... but if you insist on your little science experiments at the expense of orders then you will have to explain it to the bosses."

The lead scientist blanched and then replied "O-of course... Widowmaker, you may leave." All the scientists then began to quickly clean up the lab and leave, such was the effect of Reaper on others and the threats he bluntly wielded.

Widowmaker got off the table, still eyeing who she now noticed was also carrying a file of some description; she knew by instinct alone it contained her next assignment. She redressed quickly and collected her equipment, and approached Reaper with her usual stern facial expression.

"Follow me..." Reaper spoke to her and left the room with Widowmaker following closely behind him, closing the black door behind them. Reaper lead her to a hidden conference room close by to the lab, ushering Widowmaker inside before following behind her and closing the door.

"la Faucheuse {Reaper}, why did you not allow them to finish the procedure?" she asked as soon as Reaper closed the door and faced her.

"Why not?" he answered in a cold tone.

She responded cynically "It's against protocol, and I truly doubt Talon gave that particular order..."

"Because I've got better things to do than wait for you to play lab rat..." he responded in a condescending tone.

After a moment of silence she decided trying to pursue this line of conversation was pointless, and moved on "You've got an assignment for me?"

Reaper gave a half laugh-half grunt in response, not surprised that Widowmaker had chosen not to pursue the topic further, she was after all programmed to obey and not question her superiors. He then shoved the files he had been holding onto into Widowmaker's hand stating "This is your next assignment, an old friend of yours who has been a thorn in our sides for too long..."

She flicked open the files to see her next target - an Overwatch agent by the name of Lena Oxton with the call sign 'Tracer'. She did vaguely remember her past confrontations with her. The file contained a tactical analysis of strengths and weaknesses, personality profile and more; everything she'd need to take out the pesky agent. Yet there was more at the back of file, documents marked by Talon intelligence that were on first glance unrelated to Tracer.

"What is this?" she said showing the Intelligence documents to Reaper. The documents detailed a high flying business man in London, who had refused overtures from Talon. He was to be taken out of the picture and replaced with someone else more willing to work with Talon, someone they had already approached and got agreements from and Widowmaker was assigned, alone.

"That..." Reaper began "... is the bait. All fake intel designed to lure Overwatch out... intel, that will mysteriously find its way into their hands."

Widowmaker simply nodded in response, studying the documents detailed within before collecting and putting everything back neatly into the file with the sound of slapping paper, and began to check her equipment.

"I'm to do this assignment alone?" she asked while checking her rifle.

"You got a problem with that?" Reaper retorted, slightly swelling in size out of anger.

"Non {no}." Widowmaker replied instantly.

Reaper grunted an acknowledgement before speaking "Then go now, there is a VTOL waiting on the helipad for you. Once you arrive in London, the fake intel will have reached Overwatch, so I suggest you use your time wisely."

Reaper then turned, growling under his breath as he opened the conference room door and slammed it shut behind him, leaving the files with Widowmaker.

After completing her equipment checks a few minutes later, Widowmaker started heading back to the top deck of the ship and the helipad where another stealth VTOL craft was waiting for her to take her to London.

She knew this assignment would be her toughest yet, and she found herself looking forward to the thrill she'd feel at finally being allowed to kill Tracer. She began studying the office floor plans in a high rise tower and making her preparations for her trap for Tracer, as the VTOL flew her ever closer to London.

* * *

=Several hours later - London, UK - Late Evening=

Lena Oxton blinked through the streets of London, running as fast as she could to stop something terrible from happening. She'd received a call from Winston not 15 minutes prior and was warned of Talon making a move on a local and well-to-do businessman in order to take gain some form of influence over his company and they had sent none other than Widowmaker to deal with him. Winston had asked her to intercept Widowmaker, so much for Lena taking the break Angela had insisted she go on.

If their intel was right, and she had no reason to doubt it, Widowmaker would already be in London by now and would surely already be on the move. Time was of the essence, and Lena was determined not to let another person down like she had with Tekhartha Mondatta several months prior. She grinded her teeth together as a bead of sweat rolled down her forehead and onto her goggles as she ran and blinked forwards, as the high-rise tower that was her destination grew larger as she closed the distance.

Lena stopped before the automated doors, almost jogging on the spot with unspent energy as she waited for them to open ever so slowly, her unruly short brown hair bouncing with her. She was wearing her iconic RAF leather flight jacket and the yellow spandex trousers with her call sign 'Tracer' in white letters up her leg.

After the doors seemed to be finally wide enough for her to pass through, after what seemed like eternity to Lena, she burst into a full run and blinking slamming open the stairwell door and jumping up flights of stairs with every blink. She knew she was pushing her Chronal Accelerator energy reserves to its limit, but she had to get to the 10th floor as fast as possible, even though she'd end up regretting it later.

The 10th floor stairwell door slammed open with Lena blinking towards the far end of the building down long corridors where the targeted business man had his company offices. Upon reaching the office doors, she flung them open and ran inside to a full stop with the doors slamming shut behind her with the energy of her entrance. Her eyes opened wide in surprise at what greeted her.

The office lights were off, but she could tell that it was large and open plan save for a few enclosed rooms for meetings around the edges, it could have easily fitted 50 odd desks. What drew her attention however was the fact that there was only a single executive style wooden desk at the far end of the office, near the windows with a high backed executive chair facing out towards the windows and away from Lena, and it looked like there was someone sat in the chair, unmoving. She gulped slightly fearing she had arrived to late and jogged over to the desk.

"You alright love?" she chirped with a bright smile on her face upon reaching the desk, but received no answer to which quickly made her frown.

She quickly moved round to the side of the chair to find that there was no one sat in the chair at all unless you counted a dummy dressed in a business suit. When she heard the doors to the office close again and then lock, she realised how stupid she had been in her rush to get here and not check the surroundings. She looked up to see the outline of Widowmaker in the dark with her rifle aimed.

"I don't think he will reply, Cherie" Widowmaker cooed in triumph, she could almost taste the kill in the air and the satisfaction she would soon feel, but she had to draw it out, she was going to savour this.

"Don't think he's your target, aye love?" Tracer grinned and nodded at the direction of dummy in the chair as she moved slowly and carefully as she responded to Widowmaker.

"Non {no}." Widowmaker quickly replied as a grin formed on her face, while keeping her rifle trained on Tracer "You are, Cherie."

Lena knew she had to act quickly, and act first otherwise she'd be dead - caught in the spider's web like a fly as she was. Lena made a surreptitious check on her Chronal Accelerator's energy levels; it had just enough to do what she wanted. Not waiting for Widowmaker to make the first move, by shooting at her, Lena blinked to the left and then forwards trying to close the distance between herself and Widowmaker.

Widowmaker had expected her to move and reacted by copying Lena, running to her left and forwards swapping her rifle mode to assault and spraying bullets in Lena's general direction, attempting to keep her moving while deftly placing venom mines as she went to restrict Tracer's movements to one side of the office. The bullets from Widowmaker's rifle that hit the walls were stopped by armoured plating built into the office walls themselves. The hunt had begun and she finally had a worthy opponent, even if she was deliberately toying with Tracer and jeopardising her assignment, she felt to alive to care. She could of simply sniped Tracer through the windows from one of the opposite tower buildings, but instead she had to do this face to face.

Lena giggled while blinking forwards and began firing back with her own pulse pistols forcing Widowmaker to roll forwards and make a dart for cover behind the desk, avoiding the venom mines Widowmaker had placed on the other side of the office. In a matter of a handful of seconds the two had swapped their earlier positions in the office. She quickly reached behind her back and unclipped a pulse bomb from her backpack and blinked forwards once before activating and throwing it at the desk.

Widowmaker checking her rifle's ammo quickly while behind cover heard the distinct noise of Tracer blinking and then the thud of something small hitting the opposite side of the desk followed by the distinct sound of quick beeps. Like Tracer not minutes before, Widowmaker realised her stupidity in her rush for the hunt and tried to dart away from the desk, but unlike Tracer she wasn't fast enough. The exploding pulse bomb split the heavy wooden desk in two with one of the fragments flying through the air and hitting Widowmaker, with the shockwave of the explosion shattering most of the office's windows to the outside. Widowmaker quickly found herself hurtling out into the outside air with fragments of desk, chair and dummy falling all around her.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion for Widowmaker, her consciousness seemingly fading as she fell to Earth. There was no escape, she couldn't concentrate or keep her eyes open. As her eyes closed, she felt a warm embrace and a strange painful sensation throughout her entire body she couldn't explain as a bright blue light consumed everything before darkness finally took her.


	2. Chapter 1

**Author Notes**

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has supported this story via reviews, favourites, follows and by contacting me in PMs. I never expected such a positive reception especially for my first story starting with a prologue! Here is to many future Chapters!

I apologise if I butcher the French in the below chapter, I'm afraid I don't know any French and I'm reliant on translation sites. Also not every chapter will be this macabre/angst filled, but given the seriousness of the situation within the story at this point I thought to not do it would be to not do either of the characters or the story any justice. In addition, we will see more interactions from the other Overwatch characters mentioned in the future, at this point it just felt like it would be filler that would add nothing to the story so I made it more of an exposition.

I'd also like to wish everyone a Happy New Year, and hope that everything turns out for the best for you all in 2017, and as always constructive feedback is always welcome (especially if I've mucked something up somewhere!) :)

:EDIT: just made some corrections, and made some amendments to last few lines - when I re-read them just now I wasn't happy with them.

:EDIT 2: Fixed some grammar errors I've noticed in further re-reads. Hopefully some of it will read better now. If I have to do a 3rd edit, somebody please shoot me!

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

Who was she? That was even more lost upon her. She slowly opened her eyes, but then realised that nothing changed. A sudden onset of panic anchored itself within her very soul. Everything was changing and in flux around her and it all seemed disjointed, nothing made sense. Sensations rushed through her mind in an onslaught; past, present, future, smells, sounds, taste, touch, and sight all simultaneously assaulted her mind and beyond her ability to comprehend. She felt small and crushed, on the verge of suffocation while at the same time feeling like she was an omnipotent giant and everything was insignificant and below her notice.

Her mind desperately tried to find purchase in what she could only consider was a realm of madness, and it was slowly eroding away at her. It was then, that she saw a light, but did she see it? She couldn't be certain, but forced her mind towards it. Things began to take form and came into focus around her, slowly at first but quickly gaining speed as her mind latched onto the normality of it. Walls, doors, a king size bed with bedside lockers, wardrobes with mirrors built into a wall, a dresser, and windows looking out to a city below with the Eiffel Tower shining bright in the night sky. This was an apartment, her apartment.

She was under the covers of the bed on her side staring out of the windows, and she could sense the presence of another behind her. She rolled over and looked upon a man with short dark hair, he was asleep. She was about to wake him when she heard a vibration from behind her, and she rolled back over and reached out a slender pale hand an arm to pick up her phone on her bedside locker. Who was calling her at this time of night? It was a withheld caller ID, and she was about to deny it but something within her made her accept it and put the phone to her ear.

"Bonjour? {Hello?}" she answered in a soft tired voice, pushing the covers of the bed back before standing and walking gracefully over to the windows looking out at a city she adored. She could see her partial reflection in the glass, she was wearing silky black night clothes, which matched her long flowing black hair, with brown eyes full of life.

"It's time to begin..." a distorted voice came from the phone speaker in English, with a distorted pattern of noise playing in the background.

She frowned slightly at the voice and was about to end the call when she felt something in her mind snap and consume her. She saw the eyes full of life in the window reflection go blank for a moment before turning into a piercing glare of nothing, a glare of being dead inside.

"Je comprends {I understand}." she replied in a harsh monotone and hung up the call.

She turned round facing the bed, her eyes fixed on the man who was sleeping soundly. She slowly approached and climbed onto the bed before straddling the man's chest. She sat there for a moment before he groaned and opened his eyes looking up into her dead eyes.

"Amelie?" he asked in a groggy, but concerned voice.

"Non Gerard, mon nom est Widowmaker... {No Gerard, my name is Widowmaker...}" she replied as a dark predatory grin itched across her face, and with a flash of movement she wrapped hands tightly around Gerard's throat and pinned his arms with her knees to restrict his ability to fight back. Gerard thrashed below her in futile resistance, unable to break her grip or dislodge her from above him; despite her lithe form she was exceptionally strong.

She smiled as Gerard's struggles became slower and his eyes began to flutter, and she leaned closer brushed her head slightly against his so her mouth was close enough to whisper into the Gerard's ear "... Talon et envoient leurs salutations {and Talon send their regards}."

Gerard let out a half sob-half groan in response to her and she squeezed her hands tighter around his throat. It didn't take long to finish the job, and she felt him fall unconscious with his tense muscles loosening beneath till he finally stopped breathing and she slowly unwrapped her hands from his throat and left the bed and returning to the windows, the buzz of the kill rushing threw her body for the first time. When she looked back at her reflection, she was no longer dressed in her night clothes but a purple body suit and her skin and hair were blue, her eyes now the a golden colour. She held up her hands in front of her face to find them covered in blood and began to look around, panic setting in again as the walls began to bleed and she suddenly found herself drowning in blood and unable to swim, banging her fists against the glass.

It was then, when she thought she was about to die, that she woke up with her eyes darting open as she bolted upright with her hand grasping at her chest where she felt her heart pounding within. Her face was covered in sweat and she frowned slightly in confusion, did she just have a nightmare? She looked down at herself, hand still on her hammering chest. She was wearing plain loose fitting trousers and V-neck shirt that resembled hospital clothing, her bodysuit, weapons and equipment were all missing. It was then that she realised her heart was not the only thing hammering as her head suddenly felt like someone had taken a sledge hammer to it.

She grimaced at the pain for a moment as her hands reached up to partially cradle her forehead before she mentally pushed the pain aside and her face took a more neutral expression, she began to look around and saw that she was sat up on a bed in a room that was square shaped, roughly 100 square foot with a door leading into what looked like an on-suite bathroom and another door which looked like a mirror. The walls were all metallic with no windows and reflected the strange bright blue lights that surrounded the edges of the ceiling, she also noticed the security cameras which looked like they had been recently installed. The room was plainly furnished with the bed she was sat on, a small desk and chair and wardrobe. She quickly got off the bed and checked the mirror door but it seemed to be magnetically sealed with no way to open it from her side; so it was a cell she concluded.

She moved back into the room and checked the wardrobe which had more clean clothing identical to what she was already wearing as well as towels, before moving over to the desk and chair to see if there was anything she could use there, which there wasn't. Her frown returned as she moved into the on suite room that was similarly decorated as the main room, but contained a shower, toilet and sink with a bar of soap and tiled mirror . She decided she would be needing a shower soon, she was fastidious when it came to her hygiene prisoner or not. She returned to the main room and began to prepare for her shower when she heard the magnetic seal on the mirror door hiss as the door opened behind her and she heard someone walk in.

"Alright love" chirped the eternally happy Tracer "... thought I'd come pay ya a visit, since you're finally awake n' all."

Widowmaker turned round to face Tracer, adopting a neutral posture with her body although her eyes pierced and assessed the Brit before her. She took note of the fact that Tracer was unarmed except for her Chronal Accelerator, "foolish girl" she thought. Widowmaker then turned her back on Tracer and continued on with her preparations for her shower. She had nothing to say to Tracer, even if she was curious as to why she had saved her.

"Jeez, talk about givin' someone a cold shoulder..." she heard Tracer quip behind her and walk over to Widowmaker's bed and sit down on it, where she watched Widowmaker for a moment in silence.

Tracer suddenly sighed, it was a sad sigh, a sigh laden with guilt. It was such a contradiction of what Widowmaker knew about Tracer that it made her look over her shoulder at the woman. Tracer's usual smile was gone and she was looking up at Widowmaker with a look of guilt and pity. While Widowmaker didn't feel much of anything anymore, she could still assess other's moods and emotions, it was after all a skill useful for an assassin in order to find weaknesses that could be exploited.

"We need to talk love." Tracer spoke, her voice as equally sombre as her facial expression.

Widowmaker turned entirely and raised an eyebrow at Tracer as if telling her to get on with it.

"You might want to sit down for this love..." Tracer spoke again, gesturing towards the chair.

Widowmaker simply crossed her arms in response, remaining silent.

Tracer simply shrugged at Widowmaker before looking away and swallowing out of dread, before returning her gaze to Widowmaker.

"When I saved you from the fall... back in London." Tracer began nervously "... I er... had to do something... I couldn't let you die, but I think what I did to you was much worse than death in the end..." A single tear rolled down Tracer's cheek "... I'm sorry love... I didn't know what else to do."

Dismay settled into Widowmaker's stomach, what was so bad that Tracer had done that was causing her to fumble her way around telling her. Outwardly she remained composed however.

"I used my recall ability... after I grabbed onto you..." Tracer finally said gingerly after a moments silence "... it might have caused you, some problems..."

Widowmaker held her hand up at that in order to stop Tracer from continuing, she had read Talon's files on Tracer in depth and she knew about the Slipstream incident that had caused Tracer to suffer from Chronal Disassociation which also granted her the unique ability of being able to control her own time when combined with her Chronal Accelerator. Dread and panic filled Widowmaker at the implications of what Tracer was saying, but she knew she shouldn't be feeling anything at all right now, something was clearly wrong with her and that just made the panic within her all the worse.

"I think you should leave." Widowmaker carefully and slowly spoke each word to Tracer in a very thick French accent, which only came to the fore like this when she was stressed.

Tracer seemed to deflate before Widowmaker, she simply nodded and stood and made to leave, upon reaching the mirror door she stopped and turned her head and spoke with her voice slowly trailing off towards the end "For the mean time, you will be kept here. If you leave this room... well... you know what will happen..."

A memory flashed in Widowmaker's mind of the chaotic realm she had been in. She originally thought it part of her nightmare, but now she knew it was much more than that, and that confirmation made her heart sink - this room was more than just a prison cell, it was the only thing keeping her from going back to that place. She simply nodded in response to Tracer, whom then left the room without saying another word with the mirror door sealing closed behind her with a hiss of air.

Widowmaker suddenly felt like a shower wasn't so important at the moment and returned to her bed where she curled up, hugging her knees to her chest and tried to wrestle with her emotions which were growing increasingly unruly, she knew things would never be the same again and that her future was no longer certain. She grimaced again as her pounding headache returned.

Tracer meanwhile thought back on the events leading up to that moment, and she felt ill. She'd never wish this fate, her fate, on anyone, not even her worst enemies. She was going to need a strong drink tonight she absently thought to herself in her glumness as she ran through the events of the past few days.

* * *

 **Lena's Flashback**

=3 days prior, London, UK=

"Oh god..." Lena's panicked voice echoed through the office.

She had just jumped out of the Window, blinking forward and grabbing hold of an unconscious Widowmaker mid-fall in the air after being blown through the windows by Lena's bomb and had recalled to bring them back to the safety of the office, and within seconds of the recall Widowmaker had begun to fade and then disappeared. Winston had always warned her about using her abilities when she was holding onto someone, he had tried to explain the science about it but she hadn't paid that much attention. She only remembered him stressing it was a very bad idea, and she now knew why.

She had to think, she couldn't let Widowmaker suffer that fate and be left in that place. She shuddered at the thought, she was responsible.

She quickly grabbed her phone from a sealed pocket in her iconic trousers and dialled Winston, "he could help, he would help, right?" she thought.

"Lena" Winston's voice answered in his deep voice over the phone "I thought you were on an assignment, is everything ok?"

"Oh god Winston..." Lena's voice echoing its previous panic "... I need your help love... I think I just did something stupid."

"Ok Lena, I need you to calm down and explain what's happened."

Lena quickly explained to Winston the fight she had just had with Widowmaker and her (what she considered) botched rescue attempt.

"Ah, I see" sighed Winston, he understood now "...you weren't listening when I warned you about the potential side effects of the Chronal Accelerator?"

"Not now Winston!" Lena snapped, she instantly regretted it and groaned "... Look, I'm sorry big guy, but I can't live with myself if I don't do something to help her... it's my fault, please help me, you're the only one who can."

There was a tense moment of silence for Lena as Winston considered the options "You know I can't make this decision by myself..." was his initial response "... but we still have the room where you originally stayed before I finished the Chronal Accelerator. It's still operational, I kept it in working order just in case of an emergency."

"Thank you love, I knew I could count on ya love!" beamed Lena

"Don't thank me just yet, we will all need to discuss this and come to a consensus before moving forward... return to the Watchpoint, I'll alert the local authorities in London, they should be able to handle clean up of the office." Winston replied

"Alright love, I'll see you soon, thank you... really..." Lena spoke softly

Winston gave a friendly grunt of acceptance that spoke a thousand words to Lena before the line went dead. She sighed and put the phone away and made her way to an extraction point.

=Previous day, Watchpoint Gibraltar=

Waiting for everyone to get back from their assignments had been a new kind of torment for Lena, she worried incessantly over Widowmaker being stuck in the timeless void. She only had vague memories of it herself, the incomprehensible nature of it. It was still enough to give her occasional nightmares, despite years of counselling and medications to help her sleep and keep her calm. She has, since then, come to terms with it for the most part, but like any deep scar it had left it's mark on her and today's discussions brought back some very unpleasant memories.

They had quickly gathered to discuss the events of Lena and Widowmaker in London. Everyone was concerned about the intelligence they had received that had obviously now been proven false and used to lay a trap for Tracer to be assassinated by Widowmaker, and they were equally as concerned about Widowmaker's uncharacteristic approach to her attempt to kill Lena face to face. Those thing's however had only been a footnote in comparison to the debate raging about what to do about Widowmaker being stuck in the timeless void in much a similar fashion as Lena had been after the Slipstream incident.

They had been debating for at least an hour in a large room of the Watchpoint that had once been used for mission debriefings during Overwatch's heydays. Lena and Winston had been the first to arrive, and had been joined by Angela Ziegler, Jesse McCree and Genji Shimada. Genji had kept silent throughout the entirety of this particular debate, while Lena and Jesse had argued until their faces were red. McCree was very much in favour or leaving Widowmaker in the void where she couldn't harm anyone else ever again, and what he considered a just fate. Given Lena's personal experiences she had taken his statement about it very personally, and the debate had quickly devolved into a heated argument that both Winston and Angela couldn't get back under control.

Angela had soon backed out of the argument entirely after feeling her own anger beginning to boil after a particularly stinging remark from McCree about her objectivity where Widowmaker was concerned given her past history with her when she had been Amelie Lacroix. This was made worse given the fact that McCree had been friends with Amelie's husband Gerard whom she'd murdered, and that McCree couldn't see the hypocrisy in his own statement.

It had taken Genji finally speaking out to silence everyone "I believe that everyone deserves a second chance..." Genji had said in a calm soft voice "... even Widowmaker."

"So, are we finally agreed in saving Widowmaker from the time void?" Winston asked in exasperation, pushing his glasses back onto his nose.

No one dissented this time, and so they finally moved on; apologies could be made later when cooler heads prevailed. They quickly discussed how best to contain Widowmaker, as everyone could agree that she couldn't be trusted given her history both recent and distant, and that giving Widowmaker the spare Chronal Accelerator that Winston had built as a backup for Lena's current one was an entirely bad idea. As such, the decision was made that Widowmaker would instead be restricted to the room that had been built for Lena originally before her Chronal Accelerator, although the room would need some modifications to make it more secure. Angela briefly mentioned that Widowmaker would require a full medical workup as well although she wouldn't go into that room alone with her. Once the finer details had been hammered out and Lena had volunteered to be the first to speak with Widowmaker to 'break the news', they began making their preparations and those hours had been some of the longest Lena could remember.

 **End Flashback**

* * *

=Secret Underground Talon Facility, Sahara Desert - Early Morning of the next Day=

Reaper growled at the faceless holographic projections of two of Talon's Council before him, he was stood in the middle of a pitch black room with 8 such projectors surrounding him, but only two were active, the rest of the council had decided this issue was to beneath them to notice. The two who had bothered to show, were not impressed with recent events concerning Widowmaker.

The council were all so afraid of loosing their secrets that they kept even their identities well concealed. While he too wore a mask, most people who worked with him long enough knew who and what he truly was and so he couldn't help but feel condemnation to the pathetic excuses of human detritus that lead Talon. He doubted he'd ever meet them in person, hidden away as they were. No one knew where they were at any time, that way no one could compromise Talon in it's entirety as no one except them had all the pieces to that particular jigsaw puzzle.

"This is not an acceptable outcome." said one of the faceless holograms, the voice distorted but obviously belonging to a man.

"I concur, Widowmaker has never failed an assignment before. We expect a full report as to what caused her to stray from protocol." said the other, this time a woman's distorted voice

"Of course..." Reaper responded in a half growl, although he had better things to be doing than appeasing pencil pushers.

"Is there any ETA for her return?" the man asked

"Given that the local authorities in London are involved, she may be another week in hiding before she makes contact." Reaper replied in disdain "... and if she doesn't make contact by that time, we have other plans in place to deal with her."

"Very well then... we expect you to keep us up to date on any developments regarding Widowmaker. If we need to plan for a replacement then we need to put those plans into motion sooner rather than later." the woman stated

"Naturally..." Reaper answered condescendingly, part of him wanted to shoot the holoprojections.

The holoprojections then flickered off leaving Reaper alone in the projection room, and he chuckled darkly to himself before turning and leaving the room.

His gamble with tampering with Widowmaker's last maintenance cycle had paid off, and that she had been captured by Overwatch was a bonus. Not that he had told the council any of that for he was using them and Talon for his own ends after all as their end goals didn't really align with his and that sort of attention this early on would see his plans delayed, but so far everything was going just as planned. Now all he had to do was to clean up house with some of the scientists in the Widowmaker Project to ensure that his duplicity wouldn't get back to the council via other means.

He walked through the base's corridors with purpose with anyone unfortunate enough to be near him doing their best to avoid his baleful gaze, until he reached a room where his co-conspirators from the Widowmaker Project were being kept for 'their safety'. He quickly checked no one was watching before he turned into black mist and oozed under the door and into the awaiting room beyond.


	3. Chapter 2

**Author Notes**

As always, a big thank you to everyone who has supported this story via reviews, favourites, follows and by PMs. A special shout out thank you goes to AzuraHarrison for some really solid feedback and words of encouragement.

This is a very Widow centric chapter and primarily about her character development and setting the foundations for the future, as will the next few chapters be primarily about setting the stage for what I've got planned so please bare with me, it will be worth it when we get there!

This chapter also didn't turn out quite how I originally planned it, with parts I originally intended for this Chapter now being moved over into Chapter 3 instead otherwise this Chapter would of been the largest chapter I'd of written to date and probably getting closer to the 5500-6000 word count on it's own (instead just shy of 4000).

As a bit of a tease, Chapter 3 will see a lot more from our Overwatch heroes.

If you have any thoughts or feedback, everyone is welcome to send it to me as it all really helps me to make this story better (please do let me know if you spot any mistakes in particular!).

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

Widowmaker woke up screaming, darting upright in her bed with eyes wide open in fear and pain, her face covered in sweat and breathing heavily. She blinked a few times as reality settled in around her and she grabbed her head in dismay, closing her eyes. What was happening to her and why? She didn't know. It had been two days since she had first woken up in this room, her prison. Two days since she was first visited by Tracer and told that she had contracted Chronal Disassociation. Two days of nightmares, disrupted sleep patterns, unruly emotions and nothing to do or keep her occupied other than her own thoughts & introspections, while trying to keep up appearances when Tracer visited while quietly enjoying the distraction she provided. She grimaced and gripped onto her head slightly as a wave of nausea ripped through her stomach and pain akin to a nail being driven into her skull; she would know what that felt like but she couldn't explain why.

There was however no escaping herself in this room. Every nightmare and severe headache unlocked more of her mind, revealing something from her past both recent and distant. She now knew that her first nightmare from when she woke up in this room where she had murdered a man called Gerard in a bedroom apartment had in fact happened although she could remember nothing more about what happened afterwards; where she had gone and what had happened afterwards eluded her. She also remembered her fight with Tracer when she had assassinated Mondatta although it was a memory she spent little time analysing unlike the older memories she had remembered.

Frustration was becoming a common bedfellow for Widowmaker now, her usual coldness and stoic patience eroded in so little time due to what she assumed was the breakdown of her own mind, but there were questions she wanted answers to but none were forthcoming. Not that she had told anyone what was happening to her, but she knew it was only a matter of time before her captors found out if they didn't know already; there were cameras in her rooms after all and today was also the day she had been informed that she would be meeting Dr Angela Ziegler for a medical examination, which for some reason unsettled Widowmaker to her core for reasons she couldn't explain that only served to frustrate her further.

She sighed and let her hands drop from her head and onto her lap as the pain and nausea started to ease away, before standing up from the bed and looking around her room. On the desk sat a tray of uneaten cold food and an empty glass that had previously contained water. While normally she didn't need to drink or eat that often due to a slowed metabolism courtesy of Talon, the amount of times she woke up to a bed virtually dripping with her sweat on top of her exercise routines she had setup for herself was enough to force her to drink plenty, and ask Overwatch AI Athena for more whom she figured was the one keeping an eye on her through the cameras.

Her mind soon settled as she reasserted some control over herself and set out into her daily routine. She quickly stripped the bed, neatly piling the sheets and covers on top of the bed before stripping herself down and doing the same with her clothes. She then went to the wardrobe and puling out clean clothes and a towel and went into the bathroom to shower herself down; she knew when she left the bathroom there would at least be clean bedding waiting for her even though the sealed mirror door to her room never opened. She simply assumed that there was more to her prison than met the eye and that it probably had something to do with the Athena.

Upon leaving the bathroom sometime later dressed in clean plain clothes she had been provided with while drying off her long hair in the towel, as expected new bedding was on her bed alongside fresh food and glasses of water on her desk. She simply ignored it now, and sat in the chair trying to concentrate on drying her hair and using her fingers as a comb to untangle any knots that had formed. As she finished, the mirror door hissed open and Tracer bounded in with her usual boundless and barely contained energy and was followed by Angela a few steps behind her and Widowmaker quickly slipped back into her cold outward appearance and clinically assessed both of her visitors.

Tracer was as always unarmed and wearing her Chronal Accelerator, there was a slight flush to her cheeks although as to why she wasn't sure. Tracer however wasn't the one who she was most interested in assessing as Tracer was already mostly predictable in her attire and behaviour in the past two days she had visited, where Widowmaker had said nothing and had either simply stared at her as she talked or continued on with an exercise routine that Tracer had interrupted. Widowmaker knew that Tracer blamed herself for Widowmaker's current predicament with the Chronal Disassociation and there was a part of Widowmaker that vaguely resented her for it, although as always she maintained her outward indifference and cold silence.

Widowmaker's full attention settled on the Doctor, whom was dressed in your typical white Doctors coat and wearing casual Jeans and a woolly shirt underneath while carrying a small suitcase that Widowmaker assumed was carrying the Doctor's equipment. What interested her the most though was the Doctor's body language, as while the Doctor did a remarkable job at keeping her facial expressions neutral and almost clinical, her body language spoke volumes to Widowmaker; the Doctor was anxious and afraid of her.

"Good mornin' love, sleep well?" Lena asked in her usual cheerfulness as she entered the room, not that she expected Widowmaker to answer whom true to form didn't. Lena couldn't help but feel a slight flush of heat come to her cheeks as she noticed Widowmaker's long silky hair out of it's usual ponytail flowing down over the back of the chair she was sat in - she looked stunning, but she quickly pushed the thought from her mind telling herself to get a grip.

"So..." she continued as she sat down cross legged on the bed next to the clean bedding, earning a raised eyebrow from Widowmaker and making her feel slightly nervous all of a sudden "... this is Dr Ang-"

"I know who she is Cherie..." interrupted Widowmaker in a flat statement, surprising Lena almost at the fact that she actually spoke "... and why she is here. You did tell me yesterday."

Lena saw Widowmaker's gaze flick over to Angela where she seemed to analyse her, as if peeling layers from an onion before she shook her head and stated "No."

"I'm afraid we must..." Angela said in her Swiss accent that didn't hide the gentle force and determination in her voice, as she stood at the bottom of the bed betraying none of the unease she felt "... we have to make sure there are no complications from your condition."

"Why do you care?" Widowmaker asked, her eyes narrowing on the Doctor as her mistrust and discomfort grew at the thought.

"It's my job to care." Angela answered carefully, not wanting to betray her true feelings on the matter; she had after all been friends with this woman before Talon had taken her.

Several tense moments passed of Widowmaker quietly half glaring at the Doctor, with the Doctor returning a calm gaze and Lena's eyes flicking between the two.

"Fine..." Widowmaker finally stated before turning away to grab a glass of water and take a quick sip before adding "... be quick, then go."

"Very well..." Angela spoke and placed the small suitcase she was carrying on the bed next to Tracer and taking out a diagnostic scanner and approached Widowmaker, whom remained perfectly still in her seat.

Angela hesitated for a moment as she stood over the assassin as her cold golden eyes looked up at her with a knowing lethal gaze, before Angela began to scan her. As the scanner did its work, time seemed to pass slowly for Angela as it began listing a series of different issues both recent and historic as it identified them, and as it grew so did Angela's heart sink. Cybernetic devices, evidence of extensive historic invasive torture from tissue scarring, an artificially slowed metabolism, the break down of neural pathway blockers in her brain signifying the use of memory blockers, not to mention traces of side effects on her organs from numerous other drugs.

A part of Angela wondered just how much more abuse Widowmaker's body could of taken before it finally just gave out as it had already taken immense punishment and somehow survived. The headaches from the chemical breakdown of the neural blockers must of been agony on it's own. The good news to her though from what she could tell was like Lena, Widowmaker hadn't physically been affected by the Chronal Disassociation in anyway that would effect her health and that she was otherwise in very good health despite everything and at least the slowed metabolism explained why she wasn't eating much. There was one final task she needed to do before she could leave though and she deactivated the scanner.

"I need to collect a sample of your blood, if that is alright?" Angela asked, Widowmaker simply shrugged in response.

Angela quietly taking that as a yes, moved back to her suitcase putting the scanner back before pulling out a gun like looking device that had a clear vial connected to the top of it. As she turned and moved back over towards Widowmaker she noticed her visibly tense up for a moment.

"Don't worry, it won't hurt. I just need it to take a blood sample. If you hold up your arm, It won't take long." Angela said in a gentle tone.

Widowmaker relaxed slightly and cautiously raised her nearest arm to the Doctor, her eyes unwavering as they look up at her. Angela quickly and carefully presses the nozzle of the device against Widowmaker's upper arm and pulls the trigger of the device. After a quiet hiss, blood begins to flow into the empty vial attached to the device and Angela can't help but notice that the blood seemed a darker red and thicker than it should of been. Within seconds the vial was almost full and Angela release the trigger and pulled the device away from Widowmaker's arm.

"See, just like I said." Angela said with a smile before returning to her suitcase, while Widowmaker absently rubbed her arm as her gaze continued following the Doctor.

"I'll be back to give you my findings to you tomorrow afternoon or evening once I'm done with my analysis of the scans and your blood work, but you seem in good health from what I can initially tell. If you need anything else though in the mean time... pain killers, sleeping tablets, let Athena know and I'll come down." Angela spoke after closing her suitcase and picking it up.

Widowmaker almost glared at her for saying those words; she knew from a scan that she hadn't been sleeping well and was suffering from pain. Instead of answering her though, she simply turned her back and facing towards the wall her desk was placed against. Angela gave a slight sigh knowing she couldn't help if her patient didn't let her and moved to the mirror door with Lena quickly following behind her. Widowmaker suddenly had the urge to not be alone.

"Tracer... stay." Widowmaker spoke out before her mind could process.

Lena stopped at the sudden request from Widowmaker, Angela just gave her a worried look before nodding and leaving. Once the door had hissed closed, Lena moved back into the room and stood silently, looking at Widowmaker who still had her back turned to her, and facing towards the wall in her seat. They spent several moments like this before Lena finally broke the silence.

"What's up love?" she asked in a cheery voice

Widowmaker turned to face Lena in response, a tired expression on her face that partially surprised Lena.

"Cherie..." Widowmaker began in a quiet, almost delicate voice and she paused. She sounded so fragile, she hated how weak she sounded. Tracer's reaction to her one word caught her entirely off guard when Tracer sat back down on the edge of the bed and cautiously placed her hand on Widowmaker's arm in a gentle show of compassion and a genuine look of concern on her face.

Widowmaker didn't know how to respond, her once carefully maintained outward indifference crumbling around her for every second Tracer's warm hand remained on the cold skin of her arm. After a few moments she removed her arm from Tracer's touch out of fear that she'd loose control, and she pulled her knees up and hugged them to her chest with both her arms as she tried to regain her composure.

Lena just sat there in astonishment, Widowmaker was feeling and displaying emotions despite the usually cold exterior she always wore when others were around her. She looked even more fragile than she sounded the moment she moved herself away from Tracer's touch and hugged herself. A pang of sympathy struck at Lena's very core and all she could wish was to help Widowmaker.

"Do you want me to leave love?" Lena asked in a gentle tone and to her surprise Widowmaker shook her head, so Lena sat further back on the bed to give Widowmaker some space and let her speak when she felt up to it. Seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours and yet there was no sign of Widowmaker saying or doing anything, but Lena remained as she knew that if she broke this olive branch that Widowmaker had extended, she'd never get another opportunity.

"I remember things..." Widowmaker spoke quietly, finally breaking the monotony of the silence and Lena's own slowly spiralling thoughts and feelings "... there was a man, Gerard. Did I kill him?"

Lena blinked and opened & closed her mouth several times like a goldfish in shock before coming to her senses. Out of all the questions she had hypothesised Widowmaker asking, this one about her own past wasn't one of them and it caught her even further off guard than how emotional Widowmaker was being. She did of course know who Widowmaker was before her life in Talon, after their first confrontation in the museum a few months ago Winston had told her all he knew about Amelie Lacroix and Reaper. It was a sad and exceptionally depressing story on Amelie's part that Tracer had rather not of known, but now she couldn't run away from it as it was very well much sat right in front of her. Reaper on the other hand was just some exceptionally dangerous mercenary with strange abilities nobody knew anything about.

"Yes..." Lena slowly answered.

"Who was he?" Widowmaker quickly asked, and Lena's heart dropped further than it already had.

"I didn't know him personally, we never met..." she answered carefully, not wanting to tell her everything.

"Cherie..." Widowmaker stated in a tone of warning and shot her a glare that could kill; Lena knew instantly Widowmaker would settle for nothing but the full unvarnished truth and that she could see right through her attempts at half truths.

"He was your husband, in a different life, and an Overwatch agent in charge of taking down Talon." Lena sighed in defeat shaking her head and Widowmaker turned her gaze to the floor. Lena then dared to ask her own question "... why are you asking?"

When Lena didn't get a response straight away, she thought she may have pushed to far.

"... because I dream about the night I killed him, every night..." Widowmaker answered in a richly emotional voice, filled with hurt and pain. She then looked up at Tracer with a glare and a single tear rolling down her right cheek "... and it only started happening after I came back from THAT place."

Lena's breath hitched in her throat at the implications of Widowmaker's statement. Widowmaker blamed her for her predicament and so much more, and Lena's guilt swelled up within her like a tidal surge. She wanted to speak, but she couldn't and instead just hung her head in shame. Widowmaker meanwhile watched and studied Lena's reactions both obvious and subtle. Despite being incredibly emotional herself, she was still constantly observing and assessing and she could only come to the conclusion that Tracer cared deeply about what had happened.

Widowmaker sighed as she wiped the tear from her cheek in disdain upon realising it was there before speaking in a more controlled tone "Why you all care is beyond my understanding. I'm a weapon, it's all I know. I know I've killed many people even if I don't remember them and yet here you are helping me. You saved me when you could of let me die and you visit me every day..." Widowmaker shook her head at Tracer "... I wouldn't of done the same for you."

Lena looked up and smiled "That's what makes us different love... I care about everyone..." Lena then dared to go a little further "... and you to can be more than just a weapon if you choose to be."

Widowmaker arched her eyebrow at Tracer, she had never thought about her own choices as she never thought she had any. Was she even allowed to truly think freely? Wasn't she supposed to just follow orders and kill who she was instructed to after all? Yet the answers she often had in her own mind to such questions were strangely absent. She suddenly realised that there were voids within her mind where previously there had been voices among other things that would keep her under Talon's thumb, and that the reasons why she had been so sloppy in her fight with Tracer was due to those voids.

The nightmares, returning memories and her resurfacing emotions were all symptoms of the breakdown of those mental inhibitors. It must of been caused from her latest maintenance cycle where something had gone wrong, or right. If Reaper hadn't of stopped the scientists from performing their final checks that would of picked up on the degradations before they were a problem she wouldn't be here now, but were they a problem really? She decided they weren't and that in the end, it wasn't Tracer's actions that had caused her to be this way although she wasn't about to tell her that.

"Perhaps you are right Cherie..." Widowmaker finally answered after her several minutes of pondering.

Lena hadn't expected that response from Widowmaker, she half expected she was being toyed with and if not for the facial expressions that had betrayed Widowmaker when she had been deep in thought, she would of believed it to be the case.

"Well... I'll admit, I didn't expect ya to give that sort of answer!" Lena smiled genuinely.

Widowmaker unwrapped her arms from her legs and reached over for an elasticated hair band she left on the desk the previous night before going to bed, and began to pull her hair back into it's normal pony tail.

"It is an answer I doubt I could of given a week ago." Widowmaker answered in an almost absent minded manner as she sorted out her hair, there was something about Tracer that recently just put her at ease and made her open up more, maybe it was being able to feel again or just the compassionate nature of the Brit, she wasn't truly sure. Lena certainly seemed cheerful again, simply smiling at the fact she had managed to break through to Widowmaker in only two days, the why's didn't really matter to her right then. It was then that Lena suddenly realised she had things to do and stood up.

"Well I'm afraid I'm going to have to run love, got thing's I need to do... I'll be back tomorrow if you want?" Lena offered

"Tomorrow..." Widowmaker simply answered with a nod upon finishing sorting her hair out into a pony tail "... I would like to ask if I could have writing pad."

"A writing pad?" Lena asked in surprise "Why an earth do you want one of those?"

"I feel it would helps to order my thoughts if I write them down..." Widowmaker answered, which was only partially true; she wanted something else to do other than exercise, eating & drinking, showering and looking at drab metal walls and ceilings and since she couldn't escape her thoughts she might as well try to get them out of her system, which seemed like the most logical thing for her to do.

"I'll see what I can do, although I can't promise anything." Lena smiled, Widowmaker nodded her understanding.

"Ok, well catch you tomorrow then love." Lena finally said and left the room.

Once the mirror door sealed shut behind her, Lena leaned against the wall and sighed and looked back through the one way mirror door where she could see Widowmaker preparing to do warm up exercises. Was Widowmaker playing with her or was she being serious, she had been so uncharacteristically emotional to the point of extremity she wasn't sure of anything anymore where Widowmaker was concerned, she'd have to be cautious.

With that she blinked off down the corridor towards Winston's lab to ask him if he could give Widowmaker something to write with.


	4. Chapter 3

**Author Notes**

Thank you as always to everyone who has supported this story via reviews, favourites, follows and by PMs. Without your encouragement and feedback there would be no story! :-)

I'd also like to try an interact with you guys so I thought I'd try looking for some new roleplaying partners, so if you're interested in roleplaying stories in Overwatch, Lord of the Rings, Command & Conquer, Jurassic Park/World or Warhammer 40000, and would enjoy roleplaying with someone who likes their detail and good story plotlines/character developments (etc), then feel free throw me a private message here so we can discuss it. As a heads up, I generally have eccentric/unusual characters.

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

Angela sighed as she sat back in her chair and stretched slightly in an attempt to get rid of the stiffness she felt throughout her body, she hadn't taken a break from her analysis of Widowmaker's scans and blood samples since the previous day when she first made them. Dark lines had formed under her eyes as she yawned slightly and grabbed her cup of cold black coffee only to find it was empty, which caused another sigh to escape from her lips.

Angela looked around her lab for a moment, it was a large room that use to be filled with assistants back in Overwatch's prime but was now mostly in pitch black due to the blast shutters on the windows having been closed since Overwatch was shut down, with most of the equipment still covered by protective coverings. The only lights that were on were focused around a corner of reactivated equipment and her desk which had become her work area that she had been using for her analysis of Widowmaker's medical examination data and blood tests.

Everything Angela had learned from her analysis had only confirmed her initial diagnosis that Widowmaker had a history of receiving abuse was indeed correct and that made Angela's skin crawl. To think she'd have to explain this to everyone else in the meeting Winston had urgently called for in an hour didn't settle the unease she felt; she was definitely going to need more coffee.

She stood with her cup which had the words '#1 mum' in big black bold letters and had been a half joke gift from Lena on mother's day earlier that year due to how she mothered after everyone. It was a gift that Angela had cherished as she did consider Lena to be her adoptive daughter and so she turned the joke round on Lena much to her giggling dismay. The memory caused her to smile despite how tired she felt as she began to leave her lab and go to base canteen for a coffee refill.

As the doors to her lab opened out into a corridor, Angela was greeted by the bright light of a sunny midday through the unshielded windows that caused her to squint slightly. She really had lost track of time she idly thought to herself as she walked down the corridor, before hearing someone running up behind her and then throwing their arms around her from behind in a hug, and causing Angela to almost loose her balance.

"Alright love, where you been hiding all morning?" Lena giggled, squeezing Angela tightly before letting her go to walk by her side.

"Scheiße Lena, what have I told you about doing that?!" Angela smiled at Lena, pinching her cheek gently "... You almost made me drop the cup you gave me!"

"Sorry mum!" Lena giggled again, putting specific emphasis on the 'mum' before escaping Angela's grasp on her cheek.

Angela continued smiling at Lena and simply shook her head in amusement, Lena had this innate ability to make you smile no matter how you felt.

"And for the record, I haven't been hiding. I was completing the analysis on Widowmaker's medical, I simply lost track of the time..." Angela stated as she began to continue walking through the base again.

"Your always all work and no play Angie, you need to get out more love." Lena replied as she followed alongside Angela and cocking her eyebrow in curiousity "... learn anything?"

"I get out plenty!" Angela replied defensively, before half groaning knowing Lena wouldn't likely take no for an answer "... Nothing I'm sure you won't learn during the meeting with Winston later..."

"Hmpf, your no fun with your secrets ya know!" Lena pouted playfully "... just one thing... come on!"

"Lena, if I didn't know any better I'd of thought you were a child rather than an adult... sometimes you make me wonder." Angela half smirked, glancing at Lena through the corners of her eyes.

"Oh come on Angie, you know I'm curious! She is my responsibility after all." Lena stated in a serious tone that caught Angela slightly off guard although she instantly knew why.

"Lena... it wasn't your fault, so don't blame yourself, ok?" Angela quickly replied, looking at Lena with a serious but sympathetic expression.

"I guess..." Lena answered in a half shy tone, and looking away from Angela, it was only for a moment before she giggled and returned to smiling and looking at Angela with a mischievous glint "... so?"

Angela groaned again, placing her hand against her face while closing her eyes momentarily, she was too tired for this "... you'll find out later, like everyone else."

Normally Angela wouldn't share such personal & confidential information about a patient with anyone, but given the circumstances and the implications with Widowmaker she didn't have much choice.

"Ok, ok! I get it, I'll stop pestering." Lena held up her hands, admitting defeat before opening the door to the base canteen and holding it open for Angela.

Angela walked through the door to be greeted by a surprisingly empty canteen. She quickly ruffled Lena's hair on the way past much to Lena's protest, and approached the coffee filtration machine where she was grateful to find a freshly made pot off coffee for which she silently thanked whomever had made it, before filling her cup. Angela always drank her coffee black and without sugar, obsessed as she was with at least trying to maintain some form of healthy lifestyle as a good example to the rest of them, although she generally failed at maintaining such a lifestyle due to her obsessive nature where her work was concerned.

As she walked back through the canteen to where Lena was still holding the door open, she noticed Lena was looking down at her hands as she twiddled with her thumbs, Angela instantly knew something was bothering her.

"What's bothering you Lena?" she asked Lena getting straight to the point, gently placing her hand on Lena's shoulder in a comforting gesture.

Lena sighed, Angela always could read her like an open book "It's Widowmaker... she asked me for a writing pad yesterday, after you'd left... I spoke with Winston about it, but it just been bothering me as it doesn't make any sense..." Lena paused for a moment as she scratched the back of her head "...She also asked about Gerard and she was so... emotional. It's not like her and you know me, I want to help her, but I can't tell if it's just a ploy or not."

Angela eyed Lena carefully before replying "... Amelie use to keep written memoirs... it was one of her ways of coping with Gerard's absences and not knowing what had happened to him for months at a time, along with her other stresses. Due to Widowmaker regaining some of Amelie's former memories, and the fact that she is asking about Gerard, it could be a lifeline she's unknowingly trying to reach for. I couldn't honestly tell you though, mental health isn't my particular area of study and Widowmaker's mind to me is the equivalent of a minefield. The only thing I can suggest for you to do is to be careful, as I know you won't listen to me telling you to keep your distance."

Lena giggled slightly in embarrassment, Angela definitely knew her all to well "... Thanks Angie... just helps me to talk, and I know you knew Widowmaker before she was all blue, so bit of outside perspective helps, if ya know what I mean."

Angela smiled gently at Lena "You don't need to thank me, I'll always be there if you need me Lena."

Lena beamed a smile at Angela before suddenly hugging her, causing Angela to almost spill her coffee "Well I'll catch you later Angie, I'm going to go bug Winston!"

Angela just smiled and shook her head once more at Lena as she ran off, always a endless supply of energy. She took a sip of her coffee before checking her watch and realised she only had a couple of hours to finish off her analysis before the meeting, so she set a quick pace back to her lab.

* * *

=Two hours later, Winston's lab=

Winston grunted as he looked down at the equipment he'd dismantled, equipment they had confiscated from Widowmaker when they had retrieved her unconscious form from the time void. He then looked at several small electronic devices he had placed in a petri dish. They were disabled now, although the damage they had potentially caused was already done. He had called a meeting the previous day as soon as everyone could make it the moment he had discovered the devices, and had specifically asked Angela to bring her updates on Widowmaker's medical examination as well if they were available; the tired eyes Angela looked at him with told him she had stayed up all night to finish the analysis for the meeting, he'd have to make it up to her later.

Lena was sat on the edge of a giant tyre that doubled as Winston's seat when he worked at a computer terminal, where as McCree was sat on a crate and as always was smoking a cigar; Winston had long since given up asking him not to smoke in his lab. Angela meanwhile was sat in a chair next to a table where she had place some files down and was nursing a cup of coffee in her hands, and Genji was stood silently off to the side.

Winston pushed the glasses back up his nose before he coughed slightly to clear his throat.

"Thanks for coming everyone... I've called this meeting due to a rather urgent discovery I need to share with you all."

With that opening he held up the petri dish with the electronic devices in them.

"I found these in Widowmaker's equipment, they are tracking devices, advanced ones. I'm certain their signals have penetrated through the Watchpoint's jammers and scramblers, which means Talon know we have Widowmaker."

McCree sighed and drawled "... Perfect, that means they'll certainly come here to retrieve their prized assassin, and let's be honest... there is what... Us 5 agents here with a handful of support volunteers and a few soldiers on base, Talon will surely know we are under manned if they have intelligence teams worth a damn."

"That is why I've called you all here... recall is still active, it is however quite slow. I was hoping some of you might be able to reach out personally to some of your contacts as I'm sure you can appreciate we can't let Widowmaker go especially with her having the potential to have access to the same abilities Lena does. Speaking of which, Doctor would you give us all a breakdown of your examination of Widowmaker?" Winston responded, before shifting his gaze onto Angela whom nodded, grabbing onto the files she had placed down on the table and opened them for reference.

"I will forewarn you all now, some of what I'm about to tell you is unpleasant." she stated in her cold stand off voice, giving everyone a stern look before continuing.

"Widowmaker as she stands right now is in perfect health, however she has received extensive modification with cybernetics and gene therapy. All these modifications to summarise are designed to enhance her capabilities as an assassin, one such example would be a reduction to her metabolism and a dramatically reduced heart rate so she generates less heat and require less food and water to survive, too cybernetics enhancing her physical strength and dexterity. She was essentially rebuilt to be the perfect assassin."

Angela briefly glanced at everyone before she continued, only Lena appeared uncomfortable so far with what she had said as she saw her fidgeting on Winston's tyre where she had sat.

"There are however significant signs that Widowmaker has been historically tortured due to internal tissue scarring from what can only be described as invasive techniques designed to illicit as much pain as possible in their subject. In addition, there are signs of damage to her kidneys and liver from heavy use of drugs that some of her cybernetics have been specifically designed to pick up the slack. I've found traces of psychoactive drugs and neural pathway inhibitors in her blood work that resulted in her mind being more open to programming, supressing her emotions and aiding in the blocking of most of her long term memories. It's my belief that if she had remained with Talon she'd probably end up suffering from liver and kidney failures within the year."

Angela took a sip from her cup of cold coffee she had brought with her, in her favourite cup before continuing, it was a pleasant memory for her in the sea of depressing information she was dispensing.

"There are signs however that the inhibitors are breaking down in her brain, and there are already indications that she is starting to regain some of her memories. Gauging her mental health is not my field of expertise though."

"Perhaps I can add some clarification Doctor Ziegler." echoed a digitally synthesized voice of a woman.

"Please go ahead Athena." Angela replied.

"I've been monitoring Widowmaker constantly since she arrived at the Watchpoint, and can report she is suffering from some form of posttraumatic stress disorder. She has consistently woken up screaming from nightmares in cold sweats, in addition to erratic emotional outbursts she's had in private and discussions she has had with Agent Oxton." Athena stated neutrally.

Angela simply nodded in agreement "I'd agree with Athena then, although how we go about treating her is another matter entirely. From what I can tell though, she recently received a high dosage of drugs designed to undo the programming and aid in the degradation of the memory blockers, it's almost like someone within Talon helped her. As to what ends, I couldn't say although it's something for us all to keep in mind. In regards to helping her better deal with her situation, perhaps we could grant her request that she put through Lena?"

"It's certainly an interesting theory that warrants further investigation" Winston nodded in agreement with Angela's theory about Widowmaker's unknown helper as he continued "... if you don't mind me asking, what are your thoughts on how writing could potentially help Widowmaker, Angela?"

"Well, it's something Amelie use to do to cope with her stresses before she was taken by Talon. It helped her back then, so I think it's worth a shot and it may give us an insight into her state of mind." answered thoughtfully as she too remembered her earlier conversation with Lena.

"We could also potentially learn something about Talon in the process if she opens up like that..." McCree drawled his interjection as he puffed cigar smoke into the room.

"I agree!" Lena chirped with a smile "... we need to help her, she's been through enough if what Angie says is anything to go by."

"Well I'll sort something out for Widowmaker's request then... and Lena, since Widowmaker seems to have developed a bit of a rapport with you, you just volunteered to be in charge of her." Winston grinned at her, knowing she wouldn't have it any other way anyway. Lena just half pouted in jest as a response to him, before smiling and ignoring McCree shaking his head and Angela's concerned expression.

"I believe my master, Tekhartha Zenyatta, may be able to help her." Genji softly spoke "... he helped me through my anger and to come to terms with what I had become, even when I didn't want his help. If what Dr Ziegler says is true and Widowmaker is regaining her memories then I believe he may be able to help her find peace with herself and what she is."

"Wait, Zenyatta? Isn't that Mondatta's brother?" Lena suddenly piped up.

"I believe so yes Lena." Genji answered quietly, and Lena visibly seemed to shrink as she went back in her mind to the day Widowmaker killed Mondatta. The implications of Lena's question wasn't lost on the group however.

"I'm certain my Master will want to help Widowmaker all the more due to her hand in his brother's death." Genji stated.

Genji suddenly spoke up a bit louder than usual "... I shall also contact my brother and request his assistance with defending this Watchpoint."

McCree cocked an eyebrow at Genji as he pulled the cigar from his mouth "From what I remember you telling us of your last encounter with your brother, it wasn't exactly a happy family reunion."

"He'll come." Genji simply answered.

"Fair enough partner." McCree answered with a shrug before replacing the cigar in his mouth "... unfortunately all my old Blackwatch pals are either dead or in Talon so I can't call on anyone to help bail us out."

"I will contact Fareeha Amari, Ana's daughter. I kept in contact with her while I was in the middle east and I'm positive she'd jump at the chance to come back." Angela directed at Winston.

Winston nodded "Alright, looks like we're getting a few more agents. Angela and Genji, if you can make contact today we can arrange transportation to retrieve your contacts. In the mean time, we all need to make preparations for an attack as well as the possibility for the need to abandon this base and going to ground to rebuild Overwatch in a more secluded environment."

Lena then suddenly felt her stomach drop "... If we end up leaving, what will we do with Widowmaker?"

"I'll figure something out, don't worry Lena." Winston gave her a reassuring smile. Lena nodded in return with a half smile she didn't really feel was genuine.

"Alright... thank you all for coming. I'll now let you all get on with whatever you doing before." Winston said aloud, and everyone left Winston's lab to get on with their tasks, all except Lena whom instead walked up to Winston.

"Big guy... I have an idea..." she gave a cocky grin up to Winston.

* * *

=Secret Underground Talon Facility, Sahara Desert - 24 hours prior to Winston's meeting=

Reaper growled through his mask as he stood in the command and control centre of the base, looking at a screen that showed several tracking devices in the middle of a supposedly abandoned Overwatch Watchpoint in Gibraltar. At least, the tracking devices had been active several minutes before and were now inert. He absently stroked his chin with his armoured claw fingers as he thought on this latest development.

Widowmaker was obviously still alive although her personal tracking device seemed to have stopped working back in London, the fact her equipment reappeared in an Overwatch base only to be disabled days later told Reaper that someone had dismantled Widowmaker's equipment and that they didn't want to be tracked. Must of been that insufferable monkey he had the displeasure of meeting and getting vaporised by during a raid in that very base. At any rate he knew time was now against him as the more time he gave them, the more they could prepare.

"Get my Company ready for an excursion." he hissed in his dark gravelly voice "... get them in quietly, I don't want to tip off whoever is in that Watchpoint that we are coming."

The thought of there being Overwatch agents in the Watchpoint was tantalising to Reaper. His revenge was ever becoming a step closer, the urge to kill someone making him shiver in delight, but he denied himself for now and thought back to those he had recently killed, specifically those in the Widowmaker project and that sated his lethal desires for now; at least he didn't need to worry about any loose lips sinking his ship.

"Aye sir." answered one of the Talon officers in the room before continuing a moment later "... logistics informs us it will take a five to six days to get the men and equipment into position at Gibraltar under stealth conditions."

Reaper growled, that was too long. How he longed for the Blackwatch logistics teams, it would only take them a matter of hours to move 200 men and their equipment. He wanted to strangle the logistics idiots in charge here, Talon had given him the dregs where his support network was concerned and he knew deep down that they didn't really trust him, not that it mattered to his plans too much.

"Fine..." his voice echoed with malice as he walked over to the Talon officer who just so happened to be new to Reaper's command, and jammed an armoured finger into the man's chest "... but if my prey escapes due to logistic incompetence, I'll take it out on you instead."

With that Reaper turned and left, growling into his mask as he did so, leaving the Talon officer visibly shaking in terror. Reaper didn't care though as in part he enjoyed the effect he had on others, but right now he had preparations to make. His time was coming and he wouldn't be found wanting when it arrived.


	5. Chapter 4

**Author Notes**

Thank you as always to everyone who has supported this story via reviews, favourites, follows and by PMs - your thoughts, suggestions and feedback are always welcome!

I'm doing a little bit of experimenting with this chapter by changing points of view, so please let me know what you think. I may do it again in the future if it aids towards better character development.

As a heads up, I've put my Lord of the Rings story that I was working on (mentioned in the A/N in the prologue) on hold for the time being. The reason for this is because I've started work on a pretty big crossover story & concept with Overwatch which I think will be much better. What I'm crossing over with I'm keeping a secret! You'll just have to wait till the prologue that I'll be using as a proof of concept to see if people are interested, and from there for me to finish character, world, timelines and lore rebuilding to a suitable working degree for a story. I'll certainly post up in my A/N the moment I have an update :-).

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

Widowmaker's day so far had been more of the same; waking up after nightmares, stripping her bed, exercising, showering, and eating. The morning and most of the afternoon had passed doing near nothing in the blue light tinted room. She was starting to think that boredom inflicted on her by Overwatch alongside her nightmares and slowly returning memories was a far more effective torture method than anything Talon could ever dream of, and she knew that for certain now for she remembered parts of her first reconditioning after returning from her first assignment and it made her feel sick.

A lot of her time with Talon was coming back to her slowly, the assignments, the deaths, the faces of those she had killed and her emotions gnawed at her. She doubt she'd remember everything, and her times from before Talon were incredibly patchy and mostly just flashes. Except for that one night she'd rather not remember. She frowned at her thoughts as she sat down on her bed, rubbing the temples of her head as another headache began.

She was certain that she could of managed much better if not for the resurgence of her emotions, but her uncontrollable emotions had soon battered down her discipline and eroded what was left of those once mighty walls and structures in her mind to dust. She desperately needed an outlet, anything to vent what she was thinking and feeling. It was at this point that she heard the mirror door hiss open and her gaze flicked up as she lowered her hands from her head to land on Lena.

Lena was smiling as she always did and was saying words to her, but the words didn't register as Widowmaker's gaze was fixed on what Lena. She could suddenly feel the more predatory side of her come alive as she stood up, she felt the urge to strike and as she was about to dive at Tracer in an attempt to kill her when something in her mind screamed at her to stop. She shook her head for a moment as a wave of dizziness swept over her and the pain of her headache grew substantially until it blotted out everything else. The last thing she remembered was collapsing where she stood to the shouting of Lena.

When Widowmaker slowly woke up she was on her bed and there had been no nightmares to greet her. Her mind was uncharacteristically sluggish as new memories from her time in Talon swam around in her mind as well as further flashes of times from before Talon. She couldn't make heads or tails of any of it right then, her head was still thumping with every uncharacteristically fast heartbeat.

She slowly became aware of a warmth pressing against her back and around her stomach, it wasn't unpleasant in fact she felt safe there & wanted to go back to sleep, but instead she slowly craned her neck round to look behind her. What she saw didn't quite register in her mind; the slightly blushing face of Tracer with a nervous smile and what appeared to be a large bruise on her cheek under her right eye.

"It's ok Widowmaker... I'm here to help... you were thrashing, I didn't want you to get hurt." Tracer spoke slowly, the words slowly sinking into Widowmaker's mind before everything suddenly clicked into place.

"Let me go..." Widowmaker hissed as her eyes narrowed into a glare on the woman holding onto her. Tracer instantly let go off Widowmaker as if she had been shot by her, and Widowmaker quickly shuffling down the bed, turning to face her.

"I'm sorry..." Tracer spoke with genuine concern "... I just wanted to help."

Widowmaker said nothing simply pinning the woman with her glare before quickly scanning her room. There was a large data pad of some description on her desk that she assumed Tracer had brought in with her that she somehow hadn't noticed her carrying. The chair had been knocked over from when she had collapsed and been thrashing; the sudden dull pains in her arms and legs from where she had collided with the mostly immovable objects of her room told her she would be sporting bruises later. This thought brought her back to Tracer and her own bruise.

"Is that alright?" Widowmaker slowly asked, gesturing to the bruise. Why did she care? Her mind felt different although she couldn't explain how and her emotions weren't running riot anymore.

"I'll be fine..." Tracer replied with a smile "... you're stronger than you look love."

Widowmaker hid a smirk at the compliment and sighed instead. She quickly stood up and walked over to her wardrobe and spoke in a commanding tone while pulling out a small hand towel "Athena... glass of ice, no water."

On the desk a glass of ice was quickly placed via a small robotic arm that had come out of the wall before it quickly vanished into the wall again. The whole process took less than a second. Widowmaker walked over to the desk, laying the towel out on it before pouring the ice cubes into the centre of it. She quickly folded the towel around the ice cubes and tied a knot with the corners and took the newly formed bag of ice in hand. She sat back down on the bed and handed the towel bag of ice to Tracer.

"Press that against the bruise, it will help with the swelling." Widowmaker spoke in a neutral tone, as she sat cross legged on the bed.

"Thanks..." Tracer said cheerfully, taking the offered bag of ice before placing it on her bruised cheek with a slight wince "... you alright love?"

Widowmaker snorted in response and gave a truthful answer she never thought she'd of given "Non {No}... I'm not."

* * *

=Lena's POV - five minutes earlier=

It had been a 3 hours since Winston's meeting and 1 hours since Widowmaker collapsed. Angela had shown up very quickly to find Lena trying to keep Widowmaker from hurting herself somewhat unsuccessfully and sporting the beginnings of a bruise on her cheek. Angela had quickly given Widowmaker a sedative that soon stopped her thrashing and did a quick check-up to find that Widowmaker had undergone some form of intense anxiety attack and her mind had just shut her down in order to protect her.

With Angela's help, Lena then got Widowmaker up on the bed and Angela had left after doing a few more check ups stating that Widowmaker would need time, and probably lots of it to come to terms with a great many things. Lena felt overwhelming sympathy for Widowmaker to the point that she had got on the bed with her and wrapped her arms around her in comfort. What surprised her though was how the unconscious Widowmaker had leaned into her more and had to all intents and purposes climbed into her lap and snuggled into her as if for warmth and comfort.

And so Lena remained there, trapped between the wall and the unconscious Widowmaker to afraid to move in case she woke her, and the hours had slowly crept by like this. Lena went through a myriad of thoughts and memories as she considered what she was doing right then; how incredibly dangerous it was, how stupid she was being, but yet she cared and so her more rational side took a back seat. One of her memories, a secret she kept from everyone, came to the fore as she remembered a moment of her life.

She was in her second week at Overwatch and 20 years old, a hot shot pilot destined for greatness & the history books. How her ego had gotten to big for her shoes back then, she absently smiled at memory of her younger foolish self. On that day she had come across a woman sat down waiting outside a bunch of offices at the Overwatch Headquarters; she was dressed pretty casually in jeans, a white blouse and a light brown coat with long black silky hair, brown eyes and full lips; a face and a figure to die for in addition to having an aura of charm around her. Lena was instantly smitten.

She was writing something in a diary and had looked up at Lena as she approached her with a gentle smile. Lena remembered greeting her with a cocky grin, learned her name was Amelie and asked her out in quick succession. Lena had never been shot down faster in her entire life when that woman spoke with her beautiful French accent and rejected Lena's approach. Lena's grin soon turned to an embarrassed smile and she quickly made her excuses & apologies and left without letting the Amelie say another word. Lena couldn't help but giggle slightly as she thought how that one moment helped to deflate her ego and become more down to earth.

She had later found out that Amelie was married to Gerard Lacroix, the head of the anti-terrorist department of Overwatch. She had never met Gerard and would never see Amelie again until they ran into each other again years later in an Overwatch museum, and Amelie was no longer who she had once been.

Lena then looked down at the unconscious woman in her arms who and couldn't help but wonder if she remembered that day in the Overwatch Headquarters. it was one of the few secrets Lena had and she had kept secret initially out of pride, then later because it never seemed relevant even as gossip amongst friends and then kept secret out of convenience when she met Amelie again as Widowmaker; she didn't need people questioning her motives, she genuinely wanted to help Widowmaker and didn't need people distracting her about the past even if she was partly distracting herself with it.

She then felt Widowmaker stirring against her and brought her thoughts back to the present and she felt a little bit panicked. She felt a slight blush in her cheeks at remembering her past advances on Amelie and the fact she was to all intents and purposes hugging Widowmaker, how would she act, what would she say? When Widowmaker finally woke and looked round at her with an initially confused and initially unrecognising expression. Lena couldn't help but notice how vulnerable Widowmaker was in that short moment.

Lena smiled at her, feeling slightly awkward right in that moment as if she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar before speaking slowly "It's ok Widowmaker... I'm here to help... you were thrashing, I didn't want you to get hurt."

Lena inwardly hoped Widowmaker wouldn't react badly. The glare and hiss off words she got in return felt like daggers delving into her chest and she let go of Widowmaker who quickly shuffled away from her. In that one moment, Lena felt like she had all those years ago when Amelie had rejected her, but she quickly ignored the feeling as she needed her head on straight right now.

"I'm sorry..." Lena spoke as she managed a genuine smile "... I just wanted to help."

A few moments of silence passed between them as Widowmaker looked around the room, Lena kept her gaze on Widowmaker although didn't really focus on her. She was to busy thinking of what to do now, thinking that maybe she had just blown her only chance for Widowmaker to open up to her. Then Widowmaker asked if her bruise on her cheek was ok, and a smile leapt to her face as she realised that wasn't the case.

"I'll be fine... you're stronger than you look love." she replied

She hadn't expected what happened next, and when Widowmaker handed her the towel wrapped around ice she was almost shocked.

"Thanks..." Lena said as she accepted it and thanked her before placing it against her cheek with a grimace with the slight pain it caused, she was still in shock at what Widowmaker had just done for her and asked a fateful question "... you alright love?"

The response she got, shocked her even more.

=End Lena's POV=

* * *

Widowmaker looked at Lena who's mouth had dropped open slightly in surprise at Widowmaker's response, a part of her was wondering why she had been so open with Tracer. It wasn't like her to show weakness, and all she could do now was sigh and hold her head in her hands. She'd opened up now, might as well go say more.

"When you said I could be more than just a weapon..." Widowmaker began slowly "... I don't know how... How can I when I don't even truly know who or what I am anymore..."

Relief at speaking, at venting what had been eating away at her all this time felt good. She didn't know Tracer, but she seemed genuine enough in her wanting to help Widowmaker. She guessed that was enough and slowly began to open up fully.

"I remember things from my time with Talon... missions, people I've hurt and killed... parts of my training and reconditioning after him..." her voice hitched at the end as the memory of her nightmares came back and it took her a moment to recompose herself "... and there are fragments and flashes of times before Talon, I was different then... I don't think I could ever go back to being like that..."

She then looked up at Tracer, her eyes glistening "... All I know is the rush of the kill and how good it feels after I pull the trigger... yet I feel so wrong inside... there is a conflict within me right now about killing you where you sit... I can feel it... yet I don't want to..."

Widowmaker could feel herself beginning to breath heavily and closed her eyes grabbing her head again and tried to regain her composure slightly.

"... what did they do to me Lena?" she spoke quietly as she physically and mentally held herself together.

Lena was at a loss for words, Widowmaker had just spilt her guts to her and was on the verge of a breakdown right in front of her. She hadn't expected this at all, it all seemed to be happening to fast. It must be down to those drugs Angela had mentioned that were causing her to remember things and breakdown the controlling elements of Talon's programming to a certain extent. When Widowmaker finally said her name for the first time, Lena did the only thing she knew for sure could be of any help.

She put the towel ice bag she'd been holding against her bruised cheek down on the floor -she knew Athena would clean it up later- and shuffled up to Widowmaker and carefully put an arm around her and pulled her closer into a comforting and genuinely caring embrace for someone who was deeply hurting. Widowmaker initially went stiff at the contact but relaxed, leaning into Lena.

"You're safe from them here, they can't hurt you anymore... you're no longer alone." Lena gently soothed.

Widowmaker remained silent, and simply closed her eyes as she finally let go of her composure and quietly let tears flow in the comforting embrace. She cried for all the abuse she had received over the years, she cried for what she had done, she cried for who she once was and what she had become. She cried from the relief of finally making a meaningful connection with someone after years of solitude, and from finally opening up to them. She cried for what seemed like hours until all that was left was the warmth from Lena's embrace, whom she had now curled up into before sleep enveloped her now emotionally and mentally drained body.

Not long after Widowmaker fell asleep, the mirror door hissed open and Angela entered quietly with her medical suitcase, with tired eyes and a deeply concerned look on her face; she hadn't long gotten off call with Fareeha Amari who had been less than pleased at hearing her mother's killer was her next protection detail to all intents and purposes. Lena gave a slightly shy smile and wave at Angela who quietly walked over to the fallen chair, picking it up with her free hand before sitting back down resting her suitcase in her lap, quickly glancing at Widowmaker while she slept and clung onto Lena.

"Athena alerted me to what happened and shared the video with me." Angela spoke quietly as she looked back at Lena, still concerned "... Are you sure this is what you want Lena? I know you feel responsible, but this is reckless even for you. This woman needs more than a shoulder to cry on."

Lena frowned at Angela before quietly responding in a defensive tone "You don't think I know that Angie?! She opened up to me, I'm not about to just ignore it because it's not convenient."

Angela's quiet tone gained an edge of warning in it "We both know that is what you wanted to happen though... You spent so much time with her, it was inevitable she'd open up to you."

Lena looked shocked for a moment before a hint of anger entered her voice "What are you trying to say Angie?"

Angela groaned "Look, I didn't mean it like that... it's just... I know you wanted to help her, but just feels like it's more than that... like there is something else motivating you to help her. I just want to make sure you are doing this for the right reasons... I'm concerned for you Lena..."

Lena snapped quietly "Well I'm not... I'm doing it because I care, and I can't believe you of all people would think otherwise... Jeez Angie, this is ME we're talking about... I could handle McCree or Winston criticising me, but you..." Lena trailed off as she looked at Angela with a mixture of sadness and anger fighting for dominance of her facial expression.

Angela didn't budge though "Promise me Lena... I don't want you to be hurt... your like a daughter to me, you know how much you mean to me..."

Lena gave an irritated glare at Angela as she remarked "If that were true, maybe you'd trust me more on something that clearly matters to me instead of second guessing me."

Angela's face blanched as she realised that in her concern for Lena she had inadvertently caused the very harm she was trying to protect her from.

"I'm sorry Lena..." was all she could manage to say, she still hadn't slept yet between having gone straight back to her lab to continue work after Winston's meeting and calling Fareeha, maybe she was seeing things that weren't there since she was so tired "... So long as you're ok, that's all that matters... you know I'll always support you in the end."

"You got a funny way of showing it sometimes Angie..." Lena replied, before she sighed and smiled slightly, Lena wasn't one for holding grudges "... you looked knackered Angie... maybe you should get some sleep."

Angela simply nodded in agreement and stood up to leave, she had come to check on Widowmaker's vitals but decided it could wait till morning "I'll catch you in the morning then Lena..."

"I'll be staying here tonight... I don't want her to freak out if she wakes up... I understand what I've gotten myself into Angie, I'll be fine... I promise." Lena quietly replied with her usual smile back in place

Angela smiled and didn't respond, not really trusting her mouth to say anything positive about Lena's decision to stay here the night, and gave Lena a quick motherly kiss on the forehead before quietly leaving.

* * *

=The following morning=

Widowmaker woke up again without being by nightmares and slowly opened her eyes. She felt better today, better than she had felt since her arrival, like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. She could feel Tracer's -no, Lena's- arms around her from behind and her warmth suffusing into her back like yesterday, but this time they were both lying on their sides in the bed under the covers. She remembered what had happened last night, and a part of her chastised herself for being so weak; she chose to ignore that part and simply focus on enjoying the warmth emanating from behind her.

Human contact, she hadn't experienced it in years and didn't realise that she had craved it this much until this very moment. She felt a certain connection with Lena now, she felt she could trust her and rely on her, that she'd never judge her and would only ever try to help her. The feelings made her smile slightly for a moment before she turned round within Lena's embrace to find her still asleep, to which she smirked and slightly shuffled closer to her as she decided to have a bit of fun.

"Wake up Cheri." she cooed gently into Lena's ear, whom groaned slightly as she began to wake up.

Lena opened her eyes to find golden ones staring back at her, it took her a moment to realise who she had fallen asleep next to in bed the previous night.

"If you wanted to get me into bed Cheri, you could of simply asked." cooed Widowmaker with a smirk and mischievous glint in her golden eyes, before she began to lean in slightly closer to Lena.

Lena didn't register any of the signs that Widowmaker was joking, and gulped slightly and panicked "No no no, that's not why I'm here... it's just I didn't want you to have another attack or something, or feel like I didn't mean anything I said or..." she started loosing track of her words and tried to fumble sentences together in her mind, which only got worse as she began to blush deeply as Widowmaker got closer, it was one of the few extremely awkward moments Lena wished she wasn't interested in the same sex as her own desires suddenly came to the fore.

It was at this moment that Widowmaker laughed slightly, it wasn't the cold humourless laugh Lena was use to, but a laugh filled with amusement. It was a beautiful laugh that seemed to almost be musical.

"I was only playing with you Cheri..." teased Widowmaker with her ever present smirk.

"Wait... what?" Lena managed to ask, she didn't exactly know how to respond still half asleep as she was. Widowmaker had just joked with her or at her... or both? God she hated waking up. This earned another laugh from Widowmaker, who extricated herself from Lena's embrace and left the covers of the bed to stand up and stretch, before she turned to look down at Lena still in bed.

"Thank you Cheri... for last night." Widowmaker said quietly, before going to her wardrobe and pulling out clean clothes and towels, and heading into the bathroom to shower.

"Anytime..." Lena half mumbled as she still tried to wake up properly and process what had just happened. By the time she had, she couldn't help but giggle at how badly she had fallen for Widowmaker's joke, it was so obvious and yet it had simply gone over her head at the time.

Lena got herself out of Widowmaker's bed, she'd have to leave soon and go and catch up with Angela after last nights little confrontation, as well as check up on Winston to see if he'd managed any progress her with little idea. She could hear the running water of the shower as she approached and knocked on the bathroom door.

"Just wanted to let you know I'm heading off love... I'll be back later, if you need me just get Athena to contact me alright?" Lena spoke through the door.

"Ok, Cheri." Widowmaker replied as she massaged shampoo into her hair. She'd be lying if she wasn't a little bit disheartened, but knew Lena had other things to attend to. There was a lot she wanted to talk to Lena about, her memories specifically, to get some outside context she reckoned would be good. It felt good to her last night to open up, and she hoped Lena would be willing to help her through this more. She only felt the sting of loneliness again once she heard the mirror door hiss as it opened and closed for Lena, and Widowmaker sighed and wondered if she'd ever get her emotions under some form of control again.

As Lena exited Widowmaker's cell, one thing that stuck in her mind was that Widowmaker had called her by her first name for the first time. She took that as a good sign and gave her trademark giggle before running & blinking off down the corridor to find Angela.


	6. Chapter 5

**Author Notes**

Thank you as always to everyone who has supported this story via reviews, favourites, follows and by PMs - your thoughts, suggestions and feedback are always welcome!

I'd like to announce that I've actually managed to get the prologue out for my new Overwatch crossover series called Overwatch: The Tiberium Saga a lot sooner than I originally thought I would. If the word Tiberium doesn't ring a bell, I've produced a crossover for Overwatch with Command & Conquer (Tiberium universe). If you're interested please check it out and provide feedback as it's a big undertaking!

So the last few days have been pretty productive for me, with Chapter 4 for this story and the prologue for the Tiberium Saga - nearly 8000 words in total so far, not including this latest Chapter. I will admit to not being entirely happy with the last Chapter (4); did it feel rushed to you guys or did the characters seem a bit OTT or did you all like it? I'd appreciate any feedback you guys can provide in regards to Chapter 4, so that if I did make mistakes that seem out of place with the story so far that I can make sure not to repeat them in future chapters (thanks in advance to anyone who does provide any feedback, I really do appreciate it).

Apologies if I butcher any of the little bits of German or French in here, I suck at all languages except bad English - hopefully any Swiss who speak Swiss/German/French can correct any mistakes for me, haha.

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

"Angie, you there love?!" Lena asked as she entered Angela's lab.

Her eyes glanced around the lit areas of the lab in search of Angela until she found her sat at her desk, Angela's hair was dishevelled and her face was firmly planted on the desk asleep. Lena giggled and blinked over to her, that was the Angela she knew. She blinked over to the desk, noticing the half finished cup of cold black coffee and papers spread out all over, she gently placed her hand on Angela's shoulder and shook it gently to rouse her from sleep.

"Come on love, wake up, its gone 9 in the morning!" Lena gently soothed, but with a big smile plastered on her face.

Angela groaned, waving her hand slightly at Lena's hand "Nur noch eine Stunde {Just one more hour}..."

Lena giggled, while she didn't understand a word of what Angela had said, she knew that whenever Angela started talking in her native language you knew she was either totally out of it or you were in big trouble. She decided to keep rocking her shoulder until Angela finally opened her eyes and looked out over her desk with a intensely groggy facial expression, her eyes squinting until her gaze landed on Lena. Lena had to try not to laugh at how comical Angela looked at the moment.

"Ugh... I fell asleep at my desk again..." she groaned and gingerly reached her for cup before quickly finishing it's contents in several gulps before sighing as she placed the cup back down.

"You alright love, you seem a bit down?" Lena asked as she leaned against Angela's desk.

"I'm sorry Lena... about last night... after talking with Fareeha yesterday and not sleeping, my head wasn't on straight..." Angela sighed and looked at Lena, who just beamed a smile back at her that warmed her heart.

"It's ok, I know you meant well..." Lena smiled "... so Fareeha that upset?"

"You have no idea..." Angela groaned "... she was practically shouting at me down the phone towards the end. She is feeling a lot of anger towards Widowmaker, anger I suspect she has repressed ever since Ana died. It's understandable, but I think we should try to keep those two apart for both of their own good."

Lena nodded in agreement "Yea... I don't know how I'd feel in her place. I assume that based of what you just said that Fareeha is definitely coming to help us?"

"Ja {Yes}" Angela nodded part way through a yawn before continuing "She will be arriving this evening or tomorrow morning. I was also told by Genji that his brother Hanzo will be here tomorrow with Zenyatta; apparently Hanzo has been doing some of his own soul searching after Genji revealed himself to him."

"Really? From what Genji told me about his brother, Hanzo always seemed so... I dunno... uptight?" Lena said with slight surprise.

"I believe Genji was more surprised than you are when he found out." Angela smiled "I suppose Hanzo sought after Zenyatta, because he had helped his brother."

Lena simply smiled, but before she knew what had happened Angela was playfully pinching her cheek.

"So I expect you to be on your best behaviour Miss Oxton." Angela said in a commanding tone, although her eyes shined brightly with amusement.

"Yes mum." Lena giggled.

A few minutes later, Angela had left to get herself cleaned up which reminded Lena she needed to do the same as she had left Widowmaker's room and gone straight to searching for Angela without the courtesy of a wash and clean clothes, so Lena went to her room. When she entered her room she took off her Chronal Accelerator and flung it onto the bed as she sat down next to it and stretched enjoying being free of the contraption; her room like Widowmaker's had technology built into it to keep her anchored in time and provided her with a bit better quality of life than she would of had without the room's technological convenience. She briefly looked around her room, it was significantly larger than Widowmaker's room.

She had a couple of shelves above her desk full of scale model planes from various eras that she had built herself, with most of bare white walls wall having been plastered with Overwatch posters of varying heroes as well as group pictures from happier times within Overwatch (or what she called 'family photos'). In addition to her desk that had a computer terminal, desk chair, and wardrobe, she also had the addition of a chest of draws. She also had an on suite like Widowmaker's as well, but again it was larger to include a bath as well as a shower cubicle, sink and toilet. Opposite the bed, a smart holo TV was hung on the wall. That wasn't the part she loved the most though, that was reserved for the view she had out of the panoramic windows that looked out across the Strait of Gibraltar. Otherwise the room was surprisingly tidy although in need of a good dusting.

Lena sighed slightly as she enjoyed the view for a few minutes before finally stripping out of her clothes and jumping in the shower. As she cleaned herself off she couldn't help her thoughts wandering onto the previous night and what had happened with Widowmaker. It had all happened so fast, she had been so cold and distant up to that point, but had become so emotional and had accepted comfort so readily she wasn't sure exactly how to process or understand it, a part of her wondered if she was truly the same person, the same Widowmaker that everyone feared anymore. She seemed to brittle and damaged at the moment a part of Lena couldn't look at her as a danger anymore.

She then groaned as she washed the shampoo from her hair, remembering what had happened that morning and she decided that Widowmaker was definitely still Widowmaker at least in part, she had thoroughly enjoyed playing with Lena when she had woke up and Lena would being lying if a part of her hadn't enjoyed it at the time either. It did however add to her confusion as it was totally out of Widowmaker's character to flirt or joke like that, not that Lena had seen her beyond their confrontations during a mission until Widowmaker's capture, but she had always been so cold before. It again came down to just being too much to fast for Lena, she just quite couldn't wrap her brain around the fact that Widowmaker's memories and emotions were returning probably faster than she could deal with and resulted in exaggerated reactions to everything. Although Widowmaker had otherwise appeared much calmer and stable this morning which she supposed was a good thing, maybe she just needed an outlet? That or a friend or perhaps both, although Lena wasn't sure if Widowmaker wanted a friend.

With her thoughts quickly descending into a never ending loop of questions without answers, Lena quickly finished off her shower and got herself dried off and dressed in fresh clothes, throwing her dirty clothes and towel into a dirty laundry bag with her name plastered over it in big black letters by her door and putting her Chronal Accelerator back on before she left to go and find Winston to check in with him.

* * *

=Meanwhile in an apartment somewhere in Gibraltar=

Reaper growled as he looked out from the apartment building into the distance where he could see the supposedly defunct and abandoned Watchpoint Gibraltar, which he knew for certain was not so abandoned as it had appeared. He had arrived earlier that day with a recon team to gather intelligence about what they would be facing, and it wasn't much although he kept the recon team out there so that he could be alerted if things changed. He knew they inevitably would.

They were so weak right now, so open and vulnerable to attack and the fact that he had to wait for his pathetic excuse of a logistics team to get his men out here was grating on his nerves to no end. He could almost taste the lives he would soon claim, and the anticipation was almost killing him. However he would have to remain patient, while he was confident enough in dealing with a single Overwatch agent or two, he had no intention of going up against five; the few volunteers they had on base didn't even register as worthwhile to consider, they were ants that he could step on without noticing. He'd let his scrub forces deal with them... once they arrived.

"Death will walk amongst you soon." he growled a promise at no one in particular as he stared out at the Watchpoint before he chuckled darkly and began his strategizing.

* * *

=Several minutes later, Winston's Lab, Watchpoint Gibraltar=

"Alright big guy! How are you hangin' today?" Lena blinked next to Winston with a giggle, if he hadn't been use to her sneaking up on him, he would of jumped out of his skin almost.

Winston was sat at his computer terminal in the upper level of his lab, and gave a slight chuckle at her bad joke "Hi Lena... have a good night?"

"You could say that..." Lena cocked an eyebrow at him with a grin.

Winston smiled and shook his head at her before turning around to make sure she hadn't secretly brought in more jars of peanut butter or a bunch of bananas. Seeing that his lab was clear of her usual practical although caring jokes he focused his gaze back on Lena who was grinning mischievously knowing what he was looking for.

"What did you do?" Winston asked with a frown.

"Nothing yet love." Lena giggled.

"Yet?" Winston questioned only to earn a laugh from Lena.

"So how's my idea coming along love?" Lena asked trying to deflect his questioning gaze and turn slightly more serious, although she couldn't keep the grin from her face.

Winston at first didn't seem to buy it and seemed to want to ask Lena what she was planning, but he sighed and turned round to his computer terminal again and brought up some schematics.

"Quite well... we should have a working prototype in the next few hours, maybe sooner as I'm only disabling functionality in the end. It's a lot simpler than adding new functionality. Although you do realise in doing this you won't have a spare anymore as I don't have the spare parts to make another?" he stated.

Lena nodded "Yea, I figured as much... not like we have all that juicy government funding anymore."

"Indeed..." Winston chuckled before talking in a much more gentler and softer "... I must admit I'm surprised you suggested this, I know how you feel about your condition and not having backups... I know I keep asking this, but are you sure you are ok with this?"

Lena frowned for a moment, she looked almost sad for a moment "Yea... I'm sure... got to try and make things right at least."

Winston smiled at her gently "You really do care don't you?" Lena simply nodded in return.

Winston put a giant arm around Lena and hugged her gently, to which she giggled and hugged him back.

"You know me... can't keep my nose out of trouble" she quickly chirped with a smile before she took a step back.

"You do seem to enjoy the attention." Winston quipped, earning a surprised expression from Lena.

"Did you just make a joke love, I swear I just heard you make a joke, you feeling alright?" Lena giggled, earning a short booming laugh from Winston.

"Maybe I did..." he replied with a gigantic grin "... but don't worry, once I'm done I'll let you know... in fact you'll be the first to know, how does that sound?"

"You got a deal big guy..." Lena grinned before giving a thumbs up "... I'll get off so you can do your work."

"Alright Lena, I'm sure I'll see you later." he smiled

Lena giggled and then blinked away, leaving a stack of bananas and a jar of peanut butter behind.

"LENA!" Winston shouted after Lena, all he got in return was a distant hearty laugh to which he couldn't help but smile at.

* * *

=10 hours later, Widowmaker's Room, Watchpoint Gibraltar=

Widowmaker was sat on her bed, her back propped against the wall while resting the data pad Lena had left on her desk from the previous night against her knees as she typed away on a virtual keyboard. She had been pleased when she and picked it up and switched it on to discover it had a word processor on it so she could put her thoughts 'on paper', even if it was virtual paper. She found expressing her memories and emotions allowed her to better understand them which in turn allowed her to regain her self control without said memories and feelings overwhelming her as they had been doing, it gave her a second anchor to hold onto; the first being Lena.

She wasn't entirely sure where the desire to write had come from, she did have vague flashes of memories of Amelie doing such a thing, so she assumed that it may have something to do with the long dead woman. She had written it down as she had her nightmares of Gerard's murder, her brutal torture at the hands of Talon, some of the missions she remembered, some of the kills she had made, and how she felt about it all.

She soon realised she regretted her life even if it her life hadn't been her own. She regretted the killing, not because she had an issue with killing but because looking back at it, it had all been so pointless if not entirely destructive; fathers, husbands, brothers, sons, mothers, wives, sisters daughters - they had all fallen to her crosshairs. To many seats were now empty at family tables never to be filled by loved ones again. She hated that she had inflicted that void on anyone now that she had experienced it herself, she felt an aching void inside of her at all times, a void that was only soothed when she wasn't alone. She briefly thought about how comfortable she felt around Lena, and how the girls constant positivity made her feel safe.

It hadn't taken much soul searching while writing for her to decide she was angry, no, enraged at what had been done to her and what others had forced her to do. She knew with absolute certainty that she would make those responsible pay, before she too would have to pay for her own actions. It was an inevitable conclusion that her past would eventually catch up to her and that she would never know peace or be able to live a normal life and that she would most likely never fully recover from what had happened to her; she would always suffer from haunting nightmares, Amelie would never be able to return for that personality had died long ago and only fragments of memories remained.

Widowmaker had already chosen to accept that fate in the end. She would however make sure that no one would ever have to be in her position again, the Widowmaker had a few more kills left in her before the end.

She wrote it all down, leaving nothing out of her frenzied memoirs of thought, memory and feeling. She knew others would read it and didn't care, it felt good to write, it felt good to be able to rebuild her discipline and self control again. She felt centred within herself since the first time she arrived in this room, she felt a new purpose for her existence on the horizon, she would not be denied the vengeance that Amelie and all of her past victims deserved and she would give it to them.

Retribution was coming, and it would be swift and merciless.

Widowmaker was quickly brought out of her thoughts of revenge when she heard the mirror door hiss open to Lena almost skipping into the room carrying a box.

"Evenin' love, missed me?" Lena said with a grin.

Widowmaker scoffed slightly in response as she placed the data pad down on the bed beside her before changing to a cross legged sitting position, a smirk on her face before teasing "You'd like that wouldn't you Cherie?"

"Well you seem to be feeling better at least." Lena said with a genuine smile before carefully and gently placing the box on the desk, before turning to face Widowmaker.

"Oui... after your help last night, and being able to write... I feel more composed, but I think it will take time." she answered quietly.

Lena gave a slightly surprised expression to the answer "Didn't expect you to be so honest with me love..."

"I could lie to you if you wish Cheri... I just don't see what it would accomplish." Widowmaker answered bluntly.

"Guess you do have a point." Lena giggled slightly, she then quickly pointed to the data pad beside Widowmaker "I see you found the data pad I left without telling you, sorry about that... is it ok?"

"Bon {Good}" Widowmaker answered, before giving a quick glance to the data pad "It is suitable, thank you. You can read it if you wish, I know your _friends_ will regardless of whether I gave them permission or not."

"Er, well... we just want to help you ya know..." Lena blanched slightly at Widowmaker's accusation.

"That's why I gave you permission, Lena." Widowmaker smirked, she knew that Lena would soon learn one way or another about how Widowmaker considered her somewhat important to her, she might as well encourage her to learn quicker without outright telling her, she was one for enjoying her games after all.

"You called me Lena?" Lena replied in further surprise "That's twice now ya know."

Widowmaker simply shrugged "It's your name, isn't it?"

"Yea but you usually call me by my call sign..." Lena quickly answered.

"Things change, as I'm sure you will soon find out." Widowmaker replied looking directly at Lena, before her gaze glanced down to the box "... So what did you bring Cheri?"

Lena then grinned "I brought you a present..."

Lena quickly picked up the box and brought it over to the bed, sitting down with it on the edge before offering it over to Widowmaker. Widowmaker looked at it with confusion at first, but she slowly reached out towards it before gently taking it from Lena's grasp. She rested the box in her lap just staring at it for a moment.

"Well go on, open it." Lena smiled "... its from me and Winston."

Widowmaker nodded slightly and carefully opened the box, only to have a gentle blue light reveal itself and light up her face. Within the box was a Chronal Accelerator almost identical to the one Lena was wearing. Widowmaker's eyes went wide in surprise as she looked up at Lena.

"What is this Cheri?" Widowmaker asked in shock.

"It's exactly what you think it is love." Lena giggled before her face turned serious "... but as a heads up, we did disable all of its abilities, its simply an anchor. We are extending an olive branch of trust to you by giving this to you, and you won't be allowed out of your room unsupervised, but it's a start. Baby steps and all that."

"Je comprends, merci {I understand, thank you}." Widowmaker replied, still wearing an expression of surprise.

"Sorry love, I don't speak French." Lena said feeling slightly self conscious.

"Sorry... I feel a little overwhelmed... I understand Cheri, thank you." Widowmaker said quietly, she was grateful to have the opportunity to get out of the bland white washed and metal room she had been kept in for nearly a week "... I must admit that I'm surprised, why do you trust me with this?"

"After last night I think I saw enough to know you aren't the same woman who served Talon... You're still Widowmaker, but you aren't... it's a new you, a better you and I want to help you be that person. If you'll let me." Lena said with genuine sincerity in her voice and in her facial expression.

"Cheri, it almost sounds like your asking to be my friend." Widowmaker smiled slightly as she looked down at the Chronal Accelerator in the box as she gently placed her hand on it, feeling the cold smooth metal against her skin.

Lena smiled "Maybe I am."


	7. Chapter 6

**Author Notes**

Hey all, I apologise about this being a little bit later than usual, I've had a bit of a busy week so it's delayed my ability to sit down and write this Chapter out. I'm not abandoning the story or anything, it may just take me a little bit longer than usual to write out a chapter so your patience is appreciated.

As always, big thanks to all those who support this story with reviews, favs and follows - feedback is always appreciated! :-)

And please check out my new Command & Conquer and Overwatch crossover prologue, its ambitious on my part and would love to hear what you all think and whether you guys want me to continue it!

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

Lena's genuine smiled widened slightly as she saw the look of surprise that spread across Widowmaker's face at her response, she had obviously not expected her to answer her quite like that. Widowmaker surprised expression quickly turned to a curious and pondering one that only lasted for a few seconds before she then did something Lena hadn't expected. Widowmaker wrapped her arms around Lena in an embrace and her own eyebrows raised and eyes open wide in surprise.

Widowmaker whispered in a soft tone that Lena didn't think she was actually capable of "Thank you Cheri... you don't know how much this means to me."

Lena smile softened as she returned the embrace "You don't need to thank me love, it's what friends are for."

Lena couldn't help but think she had an inkling given how Widowmaker had just acted.

"I've never had any friends before... I wouldn't know." Widowmaker answered quietly as they remained in the hug.

Lena was again finding herself surprised at what Widowmaker had said, and just a little bit lost for words; that must be a first she thought idly to herself.

"Well you got me now... cavalry is here and all that." Lena giggled slightly.

Widowmaker sighed slightly at one of Lena's infamous catch phrases, she would of pinched the bridge of her nose to try and keep the frustration from showing if it wouldn't of dragged her away from the warmth Lena's body radiated; she would be lying if this wasn't starting to become a slight guilty pleasure for herself. Lena just giggled further as they finally separated from their embrace.

"Just one thing..." Widowmaker stated coolly as she raised an eyebrow "... no more catch phrases, please."

Lena giggled "No promises love." which caused Widowmaker to sigh in resignation and close her eyes, causing a mischievous grin to form on Lena's face.

Lena then quickly stood from the bed "So you going to put that on? Thought you might like to get out of here for a bit."

Widowmaker's eyes opened as she looked back down at the Chronal Accelerator in the box and nodded, gently reaching down for the device and pick it up. After she had pulled it out of the box, Widowmaker placed the box on the floor with one hand and gave the Chronal Accelerator and its associated straps before she gracefully began to slip her arms through and adjust them as she went so that the device settled just below her chest.

It felt slightly odd to her balance as she stood, she hoped it wouldn't affect her too much in a combat situation. It was something she would inevitably have to train for with this contraption strapped to her considering what she was planning if her captors would allow her in the near future. She stood with a swift movement that contained her usual grace and she adjusted the Chronal Accelerator one last time to ensure it was comfortable, before her gaze settled on Lena who had remained quiet and patient as she waited and been watching her the entire time.

"Like what you see Cheri?" Widowmaker smirked as she leaned towards Lena with a seductive edge to her voice. Lena blushed and scratched the back of her head, but didn't respond. Widowmaker stood straight keeping the smirk on her face.

"You enjoy doing that far too much." Lena grumbled, as Widowmaker walked to stand next to her.

"So do you." Widowmaker instantly replied, her smirk growing.

"Jeez... you're terrible..." Lena giggled, her cheeks still flushed before walking towards the mirror door with Widowmaker following close behind her.

The door hissed open and Lena walked through without a second thought, she didn't realise anything was wrong till she heard Widowmaker's footsteps stop. Lena turned round quickly to see Widowmaker stood just before the open door with a fearful expression as she looked at the open space before her.

"You alright love?" Lena asked as she approached Widowmaker, she got the feeling that she would be asking that question a lot in the future.

"Are you sure it's safe?" Widowmaker asked with concern clear in her voice, her eyes now glancing between the open door before her and the Chronal Accelerator strapped to below her chest.

Realisation suddenly hit Lena as to what Widowmaker was going through at that point, she remembered doing the exact same thing when she first got her Chronal Accelerator. At least she knew how to help Widowmaker through the uncertainty and fear she was inevitably feeling right then. Lena smiled gently at her before walking back to Widowmaker and linking her arm through hers.

"I'm positive love... let's do this together at your own pace. I'll be there every step of the way." Lena said in a gentle and reassuring tone.

Widowmaker nodded with a slight gulp as she closed her eyes and took her first step outside of her room. Nothing felt different to her and she could still feel Lena's arm and the warmth it radiated around her arm. She slowly opened her eyes and let a pent up breath out that she had held in as she felt relief flood through her; it hadn't dawned on her just how much she feared and dreaded facing this moment and yet she hadn't hesitated with Lena by her side. Widowmaker gave Lena a grateful look of unspoken thanks to which Lena just smiled and nodded back, keeping her arm around Widowmaker's.

Widowmaker quickly got to grips with herself now that the first hurdle was over and her expression turned blank and her gaze cold, the thought of openly showing her current weakness to anyone who wasn't Lena being something she didn't wish to entertain on any level.

"I'm ready." she spoke coolly.

The sudden change in Widowmaker caught Lena entirely off guard, she had been expressing herself so much over the last few days in front of Lena that for Widowmaker to throw up walls like this was of some source of some confusion to Lena. Maybe she only felt comfortable enough with her to do so?

Lena let go of Widowmaker's arm seeing that it was no longer required before smiling "Alright love... lets go get some fresh air eh?"

Widowmaker simply nodded and followed alongside Lena as she lead the way down the partially lit corridor, observing and memorising everything as she went. This part of the base was obviously underground based of the occasional visible bare rock faces which made her wonder just how big the Watchpoint was. She continued making mental maps of the base as she followed Lena up a set of stairs and more corridors. Most of the base appeared to be offline and understaffed due to the fact that they ran into no one along the way.

After climbing up several floors worth of stairs and several dimly lit corridors, Lena lead Widowmaker through a last set of automated doors and out into the open air. Widowmaker looked up into the sky to see the colours of a sun setting suffuse the sky with the occasional pin prick of light showing from a bright star as night time slowly crept closer. She took a deep breath and could taste the salt of an ocean in the air and could hear the distant thunder of waves, which on top of the heat and the time of year told Widowmaker this must be Watchpoint Gibraltar if she were to hazard a guess given the rest of the circumstances. She then turned her gaze to what was around her to find herself in a rather open area that looked like a landing zone for VTOL craft and alongside a couple of hangar doors built into a cliff.

"Bollocks..." Lena cursed, which caused Widowmaker to glance at her to see that Lena was cringing in a particular direction. She quickly followed Lena's gaze and looked over to a landing pad where a single VTOL craft was sitting, heat distortions still rising from its engines. The VTOL had its boarding ramp lowered with Angela stood before it with a petrified look on her face as she looked over towards Widowmaker and Lena, with a woman stood next to her easily several inches taller than Angela with tanned skin, a tattoo of the Eye of Horus under her right eye and wearing blue military grade armour; her facial expression was that of rage.

"Shit, we need to leave." Lena said quickly and tried to guide Widowmaker back inside, although Widowmaker wouldn't budge.

"Love... we need to go." Lena pleaded with Widowmaker, who just slightly shook her head as her own cool gaze locked onto the other woman.

The tanned woman's eyes narrowed and she quickly began marching over towards them. As she approached, Lena began placing herself between Widowmaker and the angry woman although Widowmaker gently placed her hand on her shoulder and pushed her to the side much to Lena's chagrin. The tanned woman quickly closed the distance and soon as she was close enough balled her right hand into a fist and threw a punch with all her strength behind it straight at Widowmaker.

What surprised Lena more than the fact that the woman had threw the punch without hesitation was the fact that Widowmaker didn't make any attempt to avoid it, and simply let the woman punch her in the left cheek with enough force to floor Widowmaker.

"FAREEHA!" Angela's voice almost shrieked into the air as she ran over.

Lena quickly stepped between Fareeha who still had her hand balled into a fist as she glared down at Widowmaker on the floor.

"What the hell are you playing at Fareeha?!" Lena challenged with her own glare, her tone of voice betraying not only the surprise she felt but anger as well.

"What is she doing here, out of her cell?" growled Fareeha with a gentle hint of her Egyptian accent layered underneath, her tone of voice demanding while her hand shook with anger, her eyes ablaze with years of supressed rage "What is that monster doing free?"

Angela finally reached them and knelt down next to Widowmaker who was now leaning on her elbows, although her cold golden eyes had never left Fareeha's. Angela tried to check on Widowmaker as a large bruise began forming and swelling already on her left cheek, but found herself being waved off by an irritated glance from Widowmaker.

"I'll ask again, why is she out here?!" demanded Fareeha, her tone now filling with some of her visible anger "... she is the enemy."

Angela quickly stood up and pushed Lena out of the way before she could say something.

"That's enough Fareeha." Angela spoke with surprising authority "Your mother would be ashamed if she could see what you just did... this is not how she would want it."

Fareeha snorted "How would you know _Doctor_? She's dead because of that thing."

"I was friends with your mother for a long time and I've known you since you were a child... this isn't you. Leave this be." Angela answered in a measured tone.

"I want answers, and I want justice..." Fareeha said quietly in a dangerous tone, her glare not leaving Widowmaker.

"That's enough... go... now." Angela commanded in a tone equally as dangerous as Fareeha's.

Fareeha finally broke her glare away from Widowmaker and turned it upon Angela with increased intensity. Angela shook her head and didn't bunch. Fareeha snorted and then turned and left, heading into the base. Once she was out of sight, Angela turned to face Lena.

"I'll be having words with you later about this... you knew Fareeha was arriving and yet you brought Widowmaker out here. I expected better from you Lena." Angela almost shouted, giving an accusatory glare at Lena who just gave an apologetic look before looking down at her feet, she had realised how badly she had screwed up the moment she saw Angela on the landing pad next to a VTOL.

Angela nodded and then turned to Widowmaker "I'll be back later to check on you, if that's alright Widowmaker?"

Widowmaker just shrugged as she stood back up. Angela's eyes narrowed briefly before she turned and walked off in the same direction as Fareeha in order to find her.

"Take me back to my room Cheri." Widowmaker requested in an even colder tone than before.

Lena flinched at the tone and just lead Widowmaker back to her room without saying a word, she couldn't help notice that Widowmaker seemed a bit zoned out since her run in with Fareeha. Lena idly thought to herself that she had really stepped in the biggest pile of proverbial dog shit she could find, and silently scolded herself for her rashness; she was definitely going to get the biggest chewing out she'd ever had from Angela for this later.

Widowmaker meanwhile was in mild shock as she followed alongside the deflated Lena, but not because she was just punched by Fareeha as she had allowed that to happen. Seeing Fareeha had been a catalyst that brought a memory back to her mind that she had not remembered before, it was about one of her first missions when she wasn't as experienced or as deep into Talon's programming; the moment a sniper bullet had been deflected by her older recon visor, the moment she returned fire and shot Ana Amari through the eye.

She remembered the rage she felt as the sting to her pride and ego at being hit by another sniper, she didn't once consider how lucky she was that her recon visor had deflected the bullet. All she wanted was to take that anger out on the one who hurt her. While the mission was a failure, Talon was pleased with the results Widowmaker had produced but had taken notice of her emotions. Emotions that showed open contempt and anger at Talon that could compromise future missions and her loyalty programmed as it was. They had wasted no time in throwing her back to the scientists to recondition her further. It hadn't been a pleasant process and had destroyed what was left of Amelie's conscious mind that had hidden itself away. After that mission was when she truly became Widowmaker.

It was only now that Widowmaker realised she was standing back in her room with Lena gently shaking her shoulder.

"Widowmaker, you ok? I'm so sorry about that, I-" Lena began before Widowmaker cut her off.

"Non {No}, it isn't your fault Cherie... I deserved it." Widowmaker spoke quietly as she moved over to her bed and sat down on it.

Lena frowned as she removed her hand from Widowmaker's shoulder as she walked towards her bed, the large swollen bruise and ugly albeit temporary addition to her face.

"I remember it..." Widowmaker quietly said as she held her head in her hands, her voice etched with guilt "... I remember the moment I killed Ana Amari."

Lena's frown intensified "It wasn't you... that was Talon's programming... you had no control over yourself."

Widowmaker answered in an even quieter tone forcing Lena to sit next to her on the bed "Non {No}... I wasn't as deep in their clutches then, it was one of my first missions... I killed Ana because she landed a hit on me, it stung my pride and I filled with rage... I shot her, because I wanted revenge for the slight. It was only after that mission did Talon make me into what I would become later. I deserved what I just got."

Lena had no answer for that, not at first at least. She had no understanding of any of the processes at play that Talon had used to make Amelie Lacroix into Widowmaker, nor the fact it had been a gradual process of 'fine tuning' based on mission performance.

"Look love... you can't live in the past. It happened, and you were under Talon's thumb even if you still had some fight left in you. It's not your fault, you didn't choose to be a weapon and nor were you ever given that choice. You can't be blamed for something you had no control over." Lena said reassuringly and with steel in her voice.

"That doesn't change the fact that I killed Fareeha's mother..." Widowmaker spat coldly "... I remember her... little flashes of Ana with her daughter as a little girl at the Overwatch HQ. Ana had her own daughter and still had the time to be a mother to everyone else, and I killed her without a seconds hesitation. Fareeha is right, I'm a monster."

Lena put her arm around Widowmaker and pulled her close to her before she spoke gently "No, you're not a monster; would a monster feel remorse at the things they've done outside of their control? No. You're a person who has been abused, manipulated and forced to be something they're not. It may take the others a while to see and understand this, but that doesn't matter for I understand it, and I'm here."

Widowmaker blinked for a moment as Lena's words sank in as she rested her head on Lena's shoulder. She couldn't really argue the points Lena had made despite wishing she could. She wanted to deserve it, she almost needed to deserve it, but Lena's surprisingly logical yet caring statement had cut through any argument she could make in her mind.

Widowmaker sighed in resignation, although she did feel slightly better "Cherie... sometimes you surprise me with the things you say."

Lena giggled softly "I just like to appear outwardly shallow so that I can shock everyone when I say something serious and meaningful, makes people underestimate me. Will admit it doesn't happen often though."

Widowmaker snorted in amusement as she leaned into Lena a bit more, enjoying her warmth "I'll keep that in mind for the future."

"I'm sure you will." smiled Lena for a moment before frowning "I'm sorry I put you in that situation though, I didn't think."

"It's fine Cherie." Widowmaker smiled slightly "You don't need to apologise to anyone. If I've learned anything these past few days it's that not expressing your emotions hurts, I hope Fareeha feels better now..."

Lena blinked and looked down at Widowmaker's head on her shoulder, her face showing how surprised she felt. Did Widowmaker just show concern for another person?

"... I don't particularly look forward to being punched again though." Widowmaker added, but her voice was tinted with amusement.

Lena smiled and giggled at that "I think some of your jokes need work love."

"That makes two of us then." Widowmaker stated flatly.

Lena rolled her eyes still smiling as her voice took on a mock defensive tone "What? I'm the life of the party, everyone likes my jokes!"

"If you say so." Widowmaker intoned.

They then enjoyed several moments of comfortable silence, with Widowmaker leaning against Lena who continued to keep her arm around her, until it was interrupted with the hiss of the mirror door opening. Widowmaker instantly moved away from Lena and wore a stern expression on her face as Angela entered the room carrying her usual medical case. Lena in contrast seemed to shrink ever so slightly and looked down into her lap where she was nervously fidgeting with her hands.

Angela gave a momentary glare at Lena before her gaze softened and turned to look at Widowmaker.

"I'd like to apologise for what happened earlier Widowmaker. It shouldn't of happened." Angela spoke with a genuine tone "How are you feeling? Would you like for me to check that bruise?"

"It's happened, it's in the past." Widowmaker shrugged in response with a cold tone "... if you must check then go ahead."

Angela frowned slightly but walked up to Widowmaker who remained sat on her bed, before she knelt down in front of her. Angela quickly opened her medical case, pulling out her scanner and quickly scanning the left side of Widowmaker's face.

"You're lucky Fareeha didn't cause any fractures... I'm surprised you don't even have some sort of concussion, she did hit you with a power armoured fist after all." Angela observed in a serious tone.

"I'm built sturdier than most." Widowmaker simply answered with a casual shrug, the implications of her statement making Angela visibly flinch; despite Angela knowing what Talon had done to Widowmaker and understanding most of it, she would never be comfortable with how blasé she was about the whole thing.

Angela finished her scans and put the device away and pulled out a packet of pain killers "Well there is nothing serious, but here are some pain killers in case you need them. Take no more than two every four hours."

"I won't be needing them Doctor, thank you." Widowmaker coolly replied.

Angela sighed as she closed her medical case and stood "Well I'll leave them on your desk in case you change your mind."

Widowmaker gave no response although her eyes never left Angela, causing her to sigh again as she looked at Lena one more time who had slightly come out of her deflated nervous state and just shrugged at her. She left the pain killers on the desk and quickly moved to leave the room, she was however stopped when Widowmaker spoke.

"Doctor Ziegler... might I ask a favour of you?" Widowmaker asked.

Angela stopped and turned to face Widowmaker and nodded.

"Please tell Fareeha I'm sorry for what happened, I know it will change nothing and I don't expect forgiveness. I just want her to know I regret it and that I'll avenge Ana's death on those who made it happen eventually." Widowmaker said in a deadly serious tone.

Angela was taken aback by what Widowmaker said, a shiver going up her spine as she listened to her speak as the golden eyes locked onto her own and removed the mask to show boiling need for vengeance within Widowmaker. Angela unable to form any sort of verbal response, turning slightly pale in shock, simply nodded and left the room.

Once the mirror door had closed she let out a gasp and held her hand to her mouth, her eyes wide. Widowmaker may not be the weapon of talon she once was, but that look she had received actually frightened Angela; it was a look of a killer preparing to kill anyone who got in their way. Widowmaker maybe different now, but she was still incredibly dangerous and Angela could only hope that Lena knew what she was doing. With that Angela walked off to deliver Widowmaker's message, unsure as to how Fareeha would react so soon after her encounter with Widowmaker; it wasn't a message she was looking forward to delivering.

Lena gave a concerned look at Angela as she left the room before turning back to face Widowmaker "I think you scared her half to death."

"Good..." Widowmaker answered unapologetically "... my message got through clearly."

Lena frowned "Revenge won't make you feel better you know."

"How would you know?" Widowmaker looked over to Lena, an eyebrow raised expectantly for an answer.

"Well... I... err... oh fine, I don't know, but it's not healthy to fixate on it... you need to let it go." Lena answered, almost pleading the last part of what she spoke.

"I'm sorry Cheri, but what was done to me and what I was forced to do to others... I can't forgive nor forget that." Widowmaker answered in a harsh tone, before her stern expression softened and she moved closer to Lena and leaned back into her "Please don't try to stop me when the time comes Cheri, but I have to do this eventually... I don't think I could live with myself if I didn't."

Lena blinked for a moment as she looked at Widowmaker and felt her coolness as she leaned against her again, Lena felt like she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. She knew she couldn't just let Widowmaker go out on her own as there was no telling what she would do in such a state as she was, but she also knew she couldn't leave recalled and still illegal Overwatch at such a crucial point of time. She had become Widowmaker's friend, but she didn't know how she would react and what long term impact it would have if she let her go. Lena groaned and closed her eyes as her mind began to spiral further and further between her loyalty to Overwatch and her new found loyalty to her new friend who to a certain extent needed support far more than Overwatch did. Widowmaker looked up at Lena when she groaned, she looked so sad to Lena as their eyes met and Lena thought like she could almost see all the demons that weighed down on Widowmaker's shoulders. In that brief moment Lena made her decision.

"I don't know when you'll be allowed to go free... I can't even say if it will ever happen. If it does though, I will help you no matter where it may lead." Lena promised with a genuine tone and a sincere expression on her face.

Widowmaker gave a startled look at Lena and quickly asked "You would leave Overwatch for me and help me seek vengeance against Talon?"

Lena simply nodded in turn, although she would rather look at it as seeking justice against Talon. Lena gasped as a tear rolled down Widowmaker's unblemished cheek and the most appreciative and genuine smile Lena had yet seen formed on Widowmaker's lips. Widowmaker closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around Lena.

"Thank you Lena... that mean's more to me than I know how to express." Widowmaker stated softly and closed her eyes, echoing a statement she had spoken not an hour before.

Lena put her own arm around Widowmaker remaining silent not trusting herself to speak in that moment, as while she didn't doubt what Widowmaker had said she couldn't help the back of her mind from wondering if she had just put her foot in another proverbial pile of steaming dog shit. Her course was now set and there was no turning back, she would do the same for any of her friends but at that moment Widowmaker's need was greatest no matter what reservations she may have.


	8. An Update

Hey all, just a quick update as to why I've not been updating regularly like I use to.

I started a new job a couple of months ago, which is still throwing everything I do in my free time out of whack as sometimes I can be on call during weekends/evenings, and I'm not particularly the best at organising myself even under the best of circumstances sometimes so I do apologise about that for those of you who are still patiently waiting for a new chapter.

The story isn't abandoned, I just need to get the right balance on my free time to get back to updating this again although I'll probably be putting my other Overwatch/CnC crossover on hold for the time being.

Thanks for all the support and patience, will get back to posting chapters as soon as I can!

Cheers

Slav


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